West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday morning arrested two men with suspected radioactive material Californium near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport (NSCBI/CCU) in Kolkata, officials said.
Acting on a tip-off, CID sleuths nabbed two residents of Hooghly district of West Bengal, identified as Sailan Karmakar (41) and Asit Ghosh (49), near Kolkata airport at Dumdum and seized from them around 250.5 grams (four pieces) of unidentified material, suspected to be highly expensive radioactive element Californium (Cf) that costs around $25-27 million per gram in the international market.
CID officials said that the seized materials had been sent for laboratory tests to identify the chemical elements.
“During preliminary interrogation, the duo claimed that they got the material from Kerala and brought it here in Kolkata to sell it for a few lakh rupees,” a CID official said.
“We are verifying their statement and our further investigation in the case is on,” he added.
The accused were produced in a local court later on Thursday and were remanded to CID custody.
Californium, a very strong neutron emitter, is used in portable metal detectors and also in nuclear reactors.
Californium was first made by firing helium nuclei (alpha particles) at curium-242 in 1950 at Berkeley in California by a team consisting of Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr, Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg.
