Strange deaths have been plaguing the India nuclear scientists for a decade. In 2004, there were allegations that an armed group tried to abduct an official with India's Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) but the man escaped. In 2009, an employee of NPC named Ravi Mule was murdered. The police were unable to make any progress in the case and his family was left to investigate on their own. Weeks later, the body of Lokanathan Mahalingam, another nuclear scientist was found in the same forest where the attempted abduction occurred five years earlier. A forensic laboratory issued a report claiming that Mahalingam's death was a suicide but this judgment was challenged by people in India and Pakistani officials. In 2011, a former scientist named Uma Rao was found dead. The official ruling was suicide but once again there was no evidence that Rao was suicidal and his family contested the ruling.
In October of 2013, two of the top engineers for India's first nuclear powered submarine were found dead with their bodies laying on railroad tracks. The bodies were recovered before being run over by trains. There were no marks on the bodies raising the suggestion that they had been poisoned before being placed on the tracks. The official ruling was that it was all an unfortunate accident. A journalist who has been following the case has reported that there was no evidence of depression or other family problems that could have been the cause of suicide.
If the police cannot make sense of a death, they may label it as unexplained. Once a case has been given this label, there is often little further attempt to solve it. One man died with hemorrhaging inside his skull. There were no cuts, bruises or other signs of injuries to his head so the case was labeled unexplained and further investigations not vigorously pursued.
Critics of the police investigation of deaths of the two nuclear submarine engineers say that the police gave up too soon. They point out that the suicide or murder of two men working on such an important Indian military project should have generated much more publicity and should have been investigated more vigorously. They point to the explosions that sunk an Indian submarine in 2013 as possible deliberate sabotage and complain that it has been inadequately investigated. Whistleblowers in the nuclear industry are afraid that they are being targeted and many are leaving India to work in other countries.
There have been a number of obvious murders of nuclear scientists in Iran. Someone is trying to slow down or stop Iranian nuclear research and development. There are accusations that the United States and/or Israel are behind the murders. Those who fear that Indian scientists are also being targeted say that it could be the United States, China or Pakistan who are trying to interfere with the Indian nuclear program.
These deaths may be coincidental suicides and accidents but they certainly appear to be suspicious. It may be that the Indian government has some idea of who is doing it but is not going public with their suspicions for reasons of national security.
