Crystals mistaken for radium create chaos

JAMSHEDPUR, June 3: The announcement by the local police that radium worth Rs 1 crore was seized on Saturday from a Tisco employee's home i...

JAMSHEDPUR, June 3: The announcement by the local police that radium worth Rs 1 crore was seized on Saturday from a Tisco employee’s home in Burma Mines colony sent Steel City residents into a tizzy.

But by the evening, Department of Atomic Energy regional director A K Bagchi confirmed that the silvery crystals contained in the bag that was confiscated from Bajrang Dal activist and Tisco clerk Ramesh Singh’s house was not the radio-active metal. “Our tests show that the crystal contained sulphur, zinc and copper. Such luminous material in this high-concentrated form is not manufactured by any company, locally or nationally,

and is therefore not readily available in the local market,” Bagchi said in his report to the police.

The police had barged into Ramesh Singh’s home on a tip-off that he was hoarding some “strange material”. They were led into believing that the seized stuff was radium because the words “Radium. For lab use. Made in California, USA” was embossed on the leather bag.

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The crystals collectively weighed a little less than 1 kg and the police quickly computed the material would be worth around Rs 1 crore.

Word about the discovery of `radio active material’ spread quickly and residents in the know feared the worst. Their fears were allayed only after Dr Bagchi of the Department of Atomic Energy declared the material harmless.

Ramesh Singh is in police custody with a colleague Baleshwar Rajak. The bag containing the crystals is in Telco police station.

Ashok Upadhyay, a neighbour of Ramesh Singh, told this correspondent that the arrested Tisco clerk “is a very simple man and not the kind who could be involved in smuggling the stuff”.