Six Delhi University professors have been summoned to appear on March 12 in a court here which on Monday took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in the 2010 Mayapuri radiation case. The radiation incident in April that year, left one dead and seven others injured after suffering exposure to radioactive material from an irradiator sold by DU as scrap.
The charge sheet was filed in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen in September 2011. The professors were accused of culpability in endangering the lives of people by auctioning a radioactive gamma irradiator without following mandatory precautions.
Professors V. S. Parmar, Roop Lal, Rakesh Kumar, Ramesh Chandra Rastogi, Ashok Prasad, and Rita Kakkar have also been charge-sheeted under Sections 337 and 338 (causing hurt and grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 304A (death due to rash and negligent act) of the Indian Penal Code.
ADVERTISEMENT
The charge sheet alleges that two committees were set up in which these six professors were members tasked by the DU Vice-Chancellor with disposing scrap material to create more space for university needs. While the guidelines mandated that there should be a reasonable gap between the meetings of the two committees, they allegedly functioned in haste, in disposing of the irradiator.
The charge sheet said the irradiator was purchased over 40 years ago and was lying unused since 1985. In April 2010, scrap workers dismantling the irradiator were exposed to radiation, leading to the death of one worker. An FIR was registered and the irradiator was traced to the DU's Chemistry Department. The police later recovered all the cobalt pencils that were the source of the radiation.
The charge sheet also alleges violation of the rules of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which prescribes do's and don'ts for disposing of chemical substances emitting radiation.
ADVERTISEMENT