Even duped chemicals have a market! 3 arrested with fake red mercury

Bengaluru: The City Crime Branch sleuths arrested a gang of three conmen who were trying to sell fake ‘red mercury’, which is generally used to make nuclear bombs, by posing as potential buyers.

The arrested were identified as Manigandan, Mohammed Haneef, both residents of Hosur, and Nagaraja from Hoskote.

According to the crime branch sleuths, the trio claimed that the Red Mercury (Hg) was illegally procured from the erstwhile Soviet Union by the LTTE.

But after the death of Prabhakaran this material was brought to India by some former LTTE cadres. They tried to convince the decoy cops that this material was in good demand and fetched good money in the global market.

The CCB sleuths, posing as buyers, told the trio that they had international links in business and were interested in buying the material.

After being convinced that they were genuine customers, the trio even showed power-point presentations on their laptop (which was later seized by the cops) with tests and scan reports of some US lab of the red mercury material. The trio made negotiations with the decoy cops demanding Rs 150 crore for 8 pounds of red mercury.

The conmen then offered to provide a sample to the buyer for verification, after taking Rs 5 lakh as advance.

The three accused then presented the sample of red mercury inside a cylindrical block of aluminum saying that it cannot be taken out otherwise it will explode.

The sleuths then blew their cover and arrested the trio. They then had the aluminum cylinder tested at an atomic mineral department, which reported that it had nil radiation.

The material was then cut open and, as suspected the sleuths, there was only an aluminum block and no red Mercury.

The seized block, weighing 8.9 kg, was worth only Rs 7,500, the sleuths said. The three arrested cheaters were all real estate agents and they told the police that the mastermind behind this was one Jay Singh, also a resident of Hosur. Jay Singh is currently absconding after his three associates got caught in police net, CCB sleuths said.

A case of cheating has been registered in Upparpet police station and the investigations were underway.