Khushi
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered an investigation on senior Kerala police officials by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 1994 espionage case against former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan.
A Bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, directed the CBI to carry out a thorough investigation in the case and look into the Justice D.K. Jain Committee report on senior Kerala police officials who allegedly framed space scientist Nambi Narayanan.
The court had appointed the panel on September 14, 2018 and directed the Kerala government to reimburse ₹50 lakh compensation for compelling former ISRO scientist to undergo “immense humiliation”.
On April 5, the Centre moved the Supreme Court marking it as “the national issue” and seeking urgent hearing and consideration of the panel’s report.
“Registrar Judicial shall forward a copy of the report to the Acting Director, CBI, who may proceed in accordance with the law… Open to the CBI to treat the report as a preliminary enquiry report and proceed accordingly,” the order said.
The 1994 espionage case involves allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India’s space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women. The scientist was arrested when the Congress was heading the government in Kerala.
The former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan had approached the apex court against a Kerala High Court judgement that said “no action needed to be taken” against former DGP Siby Mathews, who was then heading the SIT probe team, two retired superintendents of police, K K Joshua and S Vijayan, and the then Deputy Director, Intelligence Bureau, R.B. Shreekumar, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist’s illegal arrest.