City court summons six DU professors

Six Delhi University professors were issued summons by a city court on Monday in connection with the 2010 Mayapuri radiation case, which had claimed one life and left seven others injured after exposure to radioactive material in a scrap market.
Metropolitan Magistrate, Lovleen has issued summons to DU professors, while taking cognisance of the chargesheet, which was under consideration since September last year and issued the summons to the six accused for March 12.
The Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet in September, accusing six DU professors of endangering lives by auctioning a radioactive gamma irradiator without following mandatory precautions. The chargesheet has named the then Head of Chemistry Department, VS Parmar, and the then Dean of Sciences, Roop Lal, as accused. Besides them, Rakesh Kumar, Ramesh Chandra Rastogi, Ashok Prasad and Rita Kakkar have also been chargesheeted under various penal provisions dealing with causing death by rash and negligent acts and causing grievous injuries.
The irradiator was sold in the scrap market in violation of the rules of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which says any chemical product emitting radiations cannot be auctioned and disposed of without following mandatory regulations, the chargesheet said. One person had died and seven people were critically injured in April 2010 after they were exposed to radiation when they cut open a Cobalt-60 irradiator at Mayapuri scrap market.
The irradiator was traced to the University’s Chemistry Department. The police had said two committees, comprising university professors, were set up before the irradiator was decided to be auctioned. The first committee was set up to find out which materials were of no use to the university and could be sold and the second committee was formed to auction the waste products, the charge sheet said. The six accused professors were part of those committees and had recommended the auctioning, it said.