The doll that the accused reportedly said had been packed by Kalam himself, in this box, along with chemicals; (right) alleged kingpin Ganesh Ingole

On July 11, 2018, a Mercedes Benz drew up outside a home in Malviya Nagar, Jaipur. Security guards emerged first, took a look around, and opened the door for Ganesh Ingole, 41, a sharply dressed director of a nuclear waste and decommissioning company .

Next, a Honda City pulled up. It had Satyanarayan, 41, and officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) , including one

Mr Jindal . They alighted with bags containing anti-radiation suits and chemicals .

A third vehicle, an Innova, arrived with officials from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) , carrying more chemicals.

Soon, the house was crowded. Inside was Satyanarayan the seller ; two friends from Pune in their mid-30s, one the owner of a diamond business and the other of a restaurant; and Ingole, the director of Rencel Energy and Metal Limited . Mr Jindal and the other scientists changed into anti-radiation suits , drank water there were 50 water bottles around, as precaution and proceeded to the first floor. There, inside a black bag, awaited an isotope in the shape of a doll with a radiation range of 58 inches . The substance, made of copper and other metals, was sealed with chemicals inside a heavy, transparent box with rice sticking to it, apparently as proof of its authenticity . The friends had been told the doll dated back to the time of the East India Company, had been packed by former president A P J Abdul Kalam himself in 2014, and was worth Rs 7,000 crore per inch of radiation range in the international market.

Satyanarayan was to sell the doll to the two friends for Rs 500 crore per inch, and they would in turn sell it for Rs 7,000 crore per inch to Rencel, which would then auction it in the international market. The scientists were there to carefully unpack the doll , and test its radiation range , as it had been in packing since long.

Why that price? The isotope had applications in study of antimatter, the friends were told. They were also told that Satyanarayan couldn t deal with Rencel directly because he didn t have the resources and because the law prohibits a single private citizen from obtaining chemicals needed to open and test a radioactive substance, mainly for security reasons; a mediator is necessary so that one side gets BARC officials with their set of chemicals, and another DRDO officials with their chemicals.

On the ground floor, there was talk of history in the making as this was the biggest deal of India .

Within half an hour, there was a blast.

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It was in May 2018 that the two friends, along with a third, first heard about the radioactive dancing doll , from a frequent customer at the Pune restaurant owned by one of them. They say they looked up antimatter online, and the claims appeared to check out.

Satyanarayan s associate Dinesh Arya suggested they talk to Rencel. Soon, Amit Gupta, Rencel s Relationship Manager , met the three friends at Delhi airport, while on his way to Paris for a conference on nuclear energy , and showed them documents certifying Rencel as part of several nuclear associations. Amit told them it was a deal for the sake of the country , since the Indian government would earn crores in taxes and royalties from it.

After meeting Ingole next at a 10,000 sq ft office in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, the friends were convinced; one of them could tell a diamond s worth after all.

An MoU for Rs 5 lakh was signed with Satyanarayan and for Rs 65 lakh with Rencel. Satyanarayan was to coordinate with the DRDO, which would open the radioactive package, and Rencel would check its range. It all led to July 11, 2018, the day of the blast.

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The blast scared everyone. Within seconds, Jindal announced testing could not be done in Jaipur. We have to take the doll to our Hyderabad lab.

The friends say Satyanarayan fell at Jindal s feet, crying that he had spent around Rs 85 lakh to arrange for the DRDO team. So Ingole said they could give it another shot, armed with a chemical composition that could stay stable only for 24 hours . This was followed by a blast too, and a few scientists collapsed . Several litres of water had to be poured on them to bring them back.

Jindal repeated the doll could be opened only via robotics at the Hyderabad lab it had been packed by India s rocket man, no less and any further efforts here could endanger the city of Jaipur . Also, the doll needed to be retreated at the Hyderabad lab.

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