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Between 2009 to 2013, 11 Indian nuclear scientists have died unnaturally. Some had died in blasts, some drowned while some had taken their own lives. Interestingly, the mysterious deaths of Indian nuclear scientists is not a recent phenomenon. Homi Bhabha, the father of Indian Nuclear Program, had died under questionable circumstances in 1966 and some even claim it was the CIA responsible for this death.

It is claimed by some that the breakthroughs reached by some scientists may have posed a threat to the Indo-US Nuclear Deal and that’s probably why the scientists were done away with. However, these could be mere speculations and are not proven yet. What remains factual is the strange deaths of some of the most talented nuclear scientists of the country. Let’s check them out.

1. Homi Jhangir Bhabha

Homi Jhangir Bhabha, met his end in a plane crash, shortly after his announcement that India could produce its own nuclear device in a short time. However, on his way to Vienna, the Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc, on January 24, 1966. It was not before 2012, that a bag belonging to an Indian diplomat was found near the crash site.

Apparently, the bag did not contain any important documents. Journalist, Robert Crowley, claims the involvement of the CIA in the crash who were apparently threatened by the possibilities of India’s progression in nuclear capabilities.

2. Lokanathan Mahalingam

In June 2008, the nuclear scientist, working at the Kaiga atomic power station in Karnataka, apparently went out for a morning walk and never returned. His body was found five days later. While the incident was not quite covered by the Indian media, some serious questions were thrown from a newspaper of Pakistan called the Islamabad’s South Asian Strategic Stability Institute.

The article claimed that Mahalingam was training scientists with nuclear reactor simulator. Why the scientist’s body was cremated before the DNA tests were released was one of the many questions raised along with claims that Mahalingam’s employee, Ravi Mule was also murdered a few weeks before him.

3. M Padmanabhan Iyer

Iyer was an engineer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center who was found dead at his residence on February 23, 2010. Finding no fingerprints or clues at crime scene, the forensics declared the cause of death “unexplained” and the investigations came to a standstill as well. However, the police did try to explain the death as a cause of unnatural sex, tried by Iyer before his death.

Apparently, Iyer was homosexual and the police visited many gay parties for evidence but failed. Eventually, the case was closed in 2012. M Padmanabhan Iyer was 48 years old when he died and he was a senior researcher at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center.

4. Uma Rao

She was 63 and already a retired scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Apparently, she had taken her life not being to bear the chronic depression she was suffering from. She also had left a suicide note that said she did not blame anyone for the “extreme step” she has taken.

Her colleagues, however, did not agree that Uma Rao ever showed any signs of depressions or suicidal tendencies for that matter. Her body was found at her residence in 2011 and although, the cause of the death was said to be suicide, Uma Rao’s family contested the verdict.

5. Umang Singh and Partha Pratim Bag

They were a couple of young nuclear researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center and both were burnt to death in a mysterious fire. Their bodies were bound on December 30, 2009 in the radiation and photochemistry laboratory of the BARC. Interestingly, forensic reports said there was nothing the room that was inflammable which indicated foul play in the case.

The researchers were in their late twenties and their subject of research was free radical reactions, antioxidant studies of plant extracts. Their families are still in dark about the cause of their deaths, especially after Department of Atomic Energy stated no involvement of radiation of radioactive reactor in the fire.

6. Mohammad Mustafa

Mohammad Mustafa, was a scientist at the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam. He was only 24 years old when his body was found inside his quarters at Kalpakkam in 2012. Apparently, the young scientist had slashed his own wrist. IANS reports have mentioned that although a death note, apparently written by Mustafa was found by the police, there was no reason for suicide written in it.

Mustafa had joined only a year back and it has been only a couple of months since he was a confirmed employee at the IGCAR. He was believed to be mentally stable and did not have much pressure at work either.

7. Titus Pal

Titus Pal, who worked at the BARC, was 27 year old when she was found dead in Trombay. She was found hanging from the ventilators at her campus residence of BARC. Her father told the police that Titus was perfectly fine when she left Kolkata for Mumbai and resumed work at the BARC at around 10 a.m on March 3.

Titus, apparently committed suicide on the very same evening and it was only three days after her birthday which she had celebrated with her family and friends in Kolkata. Pal’s suspicious and apparent suicide is yet another case of unsolved deaths of nuclear scientists in India in the recent years.

8. Dalia Nayek

Dalia Nayek was a senior researcher at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. In 2009, she had allegedly consumed mercuric chloride and died at the hospital the next day. Dalia, who was 35 and working as an associate professor at the chemistry department was rushed to the hospital by her neighbors after they heard her scream.

Although police had suspected that Dalia was depressed and suicidal, her colleagues remembered her as “fun loving” and efficient. Dalia, who was single and lived on her own, joined SINP in 2005 as a chemist scientist but was researching on radio-active materials prior to her death.

9. Tirumala Prasad Tenka

Tirumala Prasas Tenka was a 30 year old scientist, working at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, who allegedly took his own life in 2010. According to the police, Tirumala had also left a note mentioning the reason of his suicide being “mentally tortured by his senior”. Police found him hanging at his residence at Rajendra Nagar, Indore.

The police had mentioned that Tenka had committed suicide about three days before the body was finally found hanging by his domestic help. His senior, G.S Lodha, was held responsible for the mental torture according to his note.

10. Abish Shivam

Abish Shivam was a 33 year old engineer working at INS Airhant, the first ever nuclear-powered submarine of India. However, his body, along with another one belonging to KK Josh, a chief engine room artificer at Shipbuilding Center, was found at the railway tracks near Pendurty railway station, Vishakapatnam.

Both were poisoned first and then dragged and left to the tracks so that it looked as they met with an accident. The deaths of the two engineers were again overlooked by the Indian media and the cases were passed off as routine accidents.

There have been 197 reports of suicides by nuclear scientists in the last 15 years. Some food for your thoughts?

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