UNNATURAL DEATHS OF INDIAN SCIENTISTS: TARGETED KILLING OR WEAK PSYCHE THE REASON

Backdrop

Timeline of Deaths of Indian Nuclear Scientists

• 1966: Dr Homi Jhangir Bhabha, Indian nuclear physicist, died in an air crash in 1966 in the Swiss Alps near Mont Blanc, shortly after he publicly stated India could produce a nuclear device in a short time. Debris of the Air India flight 101 was never found. Conspiracy theories pointed finger at CIA.
• 2004: An armed group with sophisticated weaponry allegedly tried to abduct an official from India's Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC).
• 2004: NPC employee, Ravi Mule murdered.
• June 2009: Death of Nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam classified as suicide. The body was found 5 days after death in a river and was cremated before the DNA tests were released.
• Dec 2009: Umang Singh and Partha Pratim Bag young nuclear researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), found burnt to death in a mysterious fire. Forensic reports said there was nothing in the room that was inflammable which indicated foul play in the case.
• Feb 2010: Mahadevan Padmanabhan Iyer, an engineer at BARC, was found dead in his residence. No fingerprints or clues at crime scene, the forensics declared the cause of death “unexplained” and the investigations came to a standstill.
• Feb 2010: S Ananthanarayanan, a scientist with Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), after going missing for several weeks, was found dead on a railway track in Chennai.
• April 2011: Former scientist Uma Rao committed suicide. Uma Rao never showed any signs of depressions or suicidal tendencies and her family has contested the verdict.
• 2012: Body of Mohammad Mustafa, scientist at the IGCAR, Kalpakkam was found inside his quarters at Kalpakkam.
• Oct 2013: Two high-ranking engineers—KK Josh and Abhish Shivam—on India's first nuclear-powered submarine were found on railway tracks by workers. Both were poisoned first and then dragged and left to the tracks so that it looked as they met with an accident.
• Titus Pal was found hanging from the ventilators at her campus residence of BARC. She celebrated her birthday 3 days before her suicide.
• Dalia Nayek, senior researcher at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, consumed mercuric chloride and died at the hospital the next day.
• Tirumala Prasas Tenka working at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, allegedly took his own life in 2010.
• Most of these deaths are classified as suicide or as unexplained. As per forensics experts in all such unexplained deaths, fingerprints are absent, as also other tell-tale clues that would assist the police in identifying the culprit, indicating a high degree of professionalism behind the murders.

Overall Statistics for Unnatural Deaths

• Between 2009 and 2013, there have been at least nine unnatural deaths of scientists and engineers at just BARC as well as the Kaiga nuclear facility, of which two have been categorized as suicide, with the rest unexplained.
• 197 employees of DAE in 32 centres have committed suicide between 1995 and 2010. Those who died were between 29 and 50 years of age, as per report published in The Hindu dated 14 Oct 2014.
• As per Sekhar Basu, Director of BARC, there have been 69 suicide deaths, amongst over 60,000 employees, in 20 years, amounting to 6 deaths per lakh per year, for DAE.
• WHO data, for year 2012 shows 20.9 suicide deaths per lakh in India.
• BARC answer to RTI query reveals that from 1995 to 2014, 70% of the 3,887 health-related deaths attributable to cancer, across all nuclear sites in country. Overall 2600 cancer related deaths at 19 nuclear energy centers in India.
• ISRO also has 45 death cases per year with cumulative total of 684 personnel, in 15 years.
• The Baroda Heavy Water Plant reported 26 deaths.
• Atomic Power Plants at Kota and Tuticorin reported 30 and 27 deaths respectively in the same period.
• During this period 92 persons employed with the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam have died, including 16 deaths by suicide.
• DAE has since 2010 made it mandatory for all job applicants to pass a psychological test before being hired.
• Check on mental health of DAE employees, once hired, is a grey area.

Analysis 

All Possible Probable Causes

• Stressful work environment.
• Domestic stress.
• Stress of exposure of illegal activities.
• Genius are genetically designed to self-destruct.
• Feeling of loneliness, as unable to share research progress.
• Exposure to radioactive substance and toxic chemicals due to laxity in hazard safety.
• Accident due to being absent minded.
• Opaqueness in awarding of commercial contracts, leading to involvement of criminal elements.
• Assassination to cover up failed recruitment by foreign agencies.
• Assassination by foreign agents to disrupt/delay sensitive programs.

Assessment

• Overwhelming unnatural deaths can be attributable to human failings and weak psychological profile.
• Some percentage of unnatural deaths may be attributable to internal performance dynamics.
• Involvement of mafia for commercial gains cannot be ruled out.
• Specific instances of deaths attributable to foreign espionage agencies to cover up failed recruitment attempts, forestall arrest of recruited agents, and to delay/ disrupt critical programs cannot be denied.
• Unlikelihood that such critical assets assassination would go uninvestigated by special agencies. Findings, perforce are unlikely to be revealed.
• The drop in such cases in recent past is the only visible indicator to some success by our security agencies.