Police yesterday claimed to have recovered uranium from the possession of 11 men arrested on Saturday in different parts of the capital.
The Detective Branch of police said they had recovered a leather bag containing two pounds of the radioactive element in a box.
They, however, were not certain if it was really uranium, and said they would conduct tests.
Police produced the 11 – Aslam Mia, 61, Moinal Hossain Sagor, 45, Humayun Kabir, 48, Kaiyum Chowdhury, 54, Kayes Ahmed, 54, Md Khaleq, 44, Swapan Mollah, 45, Md Firoz, 45, Mahmudur Rahman Nasim, 42, Mainul Uddin Sarwar Rajon, 35, and Tofayel Ahmed Patwary, 48 – before a Dhaka court, seeking seven days’ remand for each. The court granted four-day remand for each.
Police conducted raids in Hatirjheel, Dhanmondi, Uttara and Banani and arrested the 11 along with the bag containing uranium-like substance, DB Deputy Commissioner Krishna Pada Roy said at a briefing at the DMP media centre yesterday.
Showing a bag, he said there was a box inside containing the substance.
Apart from the substance, the box contained a gas mask, a radiation metre, an anti-radiation jacket, gloves and catalogues written in English and Russian, he said.
“The swindlers deceive people by selling the object. Some of them would collect buyers while others preserved it for selling,” Roy said.
“We recovered the bag from the residence of Aslam Miah in Banani. What it contains will be worth around Tk50 crore. The fraudsters would target people who are financially well-off, and promise them big return on investment in uranium. They would tell prospective buyers that investing millions would return them crores,” he said.
“They would initially show videos of uranium usage to the prospective investors. If they would understand that someone had Tk50 lakh to invest, they would then show him the leather bag.
“Some people have already given them money as they believed their pitch after seeing the Russian catalogue and other devices in the bag. After getting the money, however, the arestees cut off all communications with the investors,” the DB official said.
Law enforcers claimed that the gang had imported the box from a foreign country but refused to disclose its name.
The stuff will be tested
Abdullah Al Mamun, additional deputy commissioner of the DB who led the raids, said the recovered substance would be sent to a laboratory for testing.
“As we cannot say for certain what it really is, we will send it to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission or any laboratory upon court order,” he said.
According to the UK-based World Nuclear Association, uranium is a very heavy metal which can be used as an abundant source of concentrated energy, and occurs in most rocks in concentrations of two to four parts per million.
Woman claims an arrestee her husband.
Meanwhile, a woman was found waiting outside the DB office during the briefing. She refused to tell her name but claimed herself the wife of Kayes.
“My husband was at a meeting when he was arrested on Thursday night. Today someone called me and said my husband was brought to the DB office,” she said.
She said she had no idea what type of meeting Kayes had been at.
“My husband manages a warehouse, and also works as a lobbyist. He has connections with many top officials of the police and administration,” she claimed.
The woman said her husband did not tell her anything about uranium.
