Kriti Agrawal
The CBI has filed a FIR against Kerala police officers in connection with the alleged framing of space scientist Nambi Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case in 1994. Officials said on Monday that the FIR was filed on the Supreme Court’s orders.
On April 15, the Supreme Court directed that the report of a high-level committee investigating the involvement of the erring police in the ISRO scientist Narayanan case be handed over to the CBI. The case has been handed over to the Central Agency for further investigation.
After Maldivian national Rasheeda was arrested in Thiruvananthapuram in October 1994 for allegedly obtaining classified sketches of ISRO rocket engines to export to Pakistan, the Kerala police reported two cases.
Three people were arrested in connection with the case: then-ISRO cryogenic project director Narayanan, then-ISRO deputy director D Sasikumaran, and Rasheeda’s Maldivian friend Fousiya Hasan. The CBI investigation, however, found the charges to be baseless.
The Supreme Court had, in September 2018, described the police action against the former ISRO scientist as psycho-pathological treatment, saying his liberty and integrity, basic to his human rights, were jeopardized as he was taken into custody and, ultimately, after all the glory of the past, he was forced to face cynical abhorrence.
The Supreme Court named a three-member panel led by former Judge D K Jain, and the Kerala government was ordered to pay Narayanan Rs 50 lakh in compensation for immense humiliation.