MUMBAI: A Thane sessions court last week ordered the dropping of criminal charges against a Wadala businessman over two years after he was arrested for allegedly trying to sell nine kg of depleted uranium worth Rs 27 crore.Additional sessions judge S B Bahalkar ordered that Kishore Prajapati (59), director of Kishore Ispat Pvt Ltd, a family business of ship-breaking and aircraft-breaking, be discharged from the criminal case.Thane police, at the time of Prajapati’s arrest on December 24, 2016, claimed that they had unearthed a “nuclear blackmarket”. They claimed that the material could have been smuggled from a Gulf nation but investigations revealed that the source of the depleted uranium was an auctioned Air India Airbus that he had purchased in 2006 from a Haryana entrepreneur. Police had charged him under Atomic Energy Act provisions for not having a license, and if convicted, he could have faced imprisonment for up to five years.Advocate R R Tripathi, counsel for Prajapati, pointed to a BARC report that said a licence was needed only for possession of depleted uranium of over 1,000kg, which the court agreed.“On considering the material placed on record, it is crystal clear that a licence is required to be obtained from Department of Atomic Energy if the quantity is beyond 1,000kg. As per the prosecution, the quantity is about 10kg. No licence was required for the accused to possess the depleted uranium,” said Bahalkar, adding, “Thus, there is no prima facie material on record to show that the accused has committed offences as alleged by the prosecution.”The prosecutor said the accused had a prescribed substance without a licence, which was a criminal offence. The accused’s lawyer referred to the BARC report that stated that the uranium was a by-product of nuclear fuel reprocessing cycle and had civilian use, which included counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, and containers for transporting radioactive materials”. The HC had released Prajapti on bail in August 2017.The sessions judge said the magistrate had erred in not discharging Prajapati.

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