The Indian authorities have arrested two suspects from the city of Kolkata for illegally possessing Radioactive substances worth over $573 million, the senior Crime Investigation Department (CID) officer said on Thursday.
Acting on a tip-off from a person, who was reportedly approached by the accused for the sale of the four pieces of radioactive material, the CID officials detained them, reported NDTV.
One of the four pieces seized is suspected to be Californium, which has several practical uses, police sources said.
"The duo claimed that they bought the radioactive substances, which weighed 250 kilograms in all, from someone in Karnataka, after chancing upon him on social media," the officer explained.
The two accused have been arrested under the Atomic Energy Act and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code, the CID officer said.
"We believe these materials have been stolen from some laboratory. We have initiated a probe into this matter," he added.
Earlier in June this year, Pakistan demanded a thorough investigation into the reports of illegal uranium trade in India after seven more people were arrested for possessing radioactive material.
Indian police in Jharkhand state arrested seven people for possessing and planning to sell ‘mineral uranium’ in the black market, according to The Indian Express.
Police said that they seized 6.4kg of ‘uranium mineral’ from two of the accused.
According to the court records and the FIR, a senior police officer in Bokaro received a ‘tip’ on June 2 that five people – Deepak Mahato, Pankaj Kumar, Mahabir Mahato, M Sharma, and Krishna Kant – had ‘gathered together’ and were planning to ‘illegally sell prohibited mineral uranium in the black market’.
Pakistan expressed serious concerns after reports emerged of uranium seizure from two unauthorised persons in India.
On Friday, Indian police said it had seized over seven kilograms (15.4 pounds) of natural uranium and arrested two men in the western Maharashtra state for “illegally possessing” the highly radioactive substance.
Safeguarding nuclear arsenals should be top priority for all countries, said Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri in a statement.
"There is need for a thorough investigation of the matter as to how such sizeable quantity of uranium could become available outside of state control and identify the gaps which made this possible" he further added.
According to the anti-terrorism squad in India's Maharashtra state, the confiscated material is worth around $2.9 million and an investigation into the case is underway.
A case was registered after a report from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai confirmed the seized material is highly radioactive.
It is the second time in India that such a highly radioactive substance has been seized by police in recent years. In 2016, police seized almost 9 kg (19.8 lbs) of depleted uranium in the Thane area of Maharashtra.
Uranium is used in several areas, including nuclear explosives and medical techniques.