Police seize uranium rod in India''s Kerala state

November 12, 2000
Web posted at: 11:55 PM HKT (1555 GMT)

COCHIN, India (Reuters) -- Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala said on Sunday they had seized a radioactive uranium rod and arrested eight people in connection with the seizure.

Cochin's Police Commissioner Arun Kumar Sinha said the 22-centimetre (0.73 foot) rod appeared to have come from the Cochin general hospital -- where scrap was auctioned in 1994.

Sinha said the rod was seized during investigations into a counterfeit currency racket. Some of those arrested were scrap dealers.

Last week, police in the southern city of Hyderabad seized 26 kg (57 lb) of uranium from a house and arrested two men who had been trying to smuggle the radioactive material out of the country.

The two men had stumbled upon the uranium when they bought a vast quantity of scrap from a private hospital in 1998.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more ASIANOW news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about South Asia
South Asian media sites

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.