The Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the four accused of framing the ISRO scientist
The case was framed on the basis of allegations that four others, including two scientists and two Maldivian women, had transferred some secret documents related to India’s space program abroad.
The Supreme Court today canceled the anticipatory bail granted to four accused, including the former Director General of Police (DGP), in the 1994 ISRO espionage case against scientist Nambi Narayanan. The court referred the matter back to the Kerala High Court for fresh consideration and asked for a decision at the earliest within four weeks.
Pending the High Court’s decision, a bench comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar granted immunity from arrest to the accused for five weeks.
The Kerala High Court has granted anticipatory bail to four accused accused of murdering scientist Nambi Narayanan. The accused include former Gujarat DGP RB Sreekumar, two former Kerala police officers and a retired intelligence officer.
The CBI had requested the annulment of anticipatory bail, claiming that its granting could scupper the case’s investigation. The investigation agency also questioned why the high court heard the case collectively rather than individually. The investigation agency claimed that the judge might have given the defendants bail based on the merits of each individual case.
The Supreme Court panel has now requested that the Kerala high court give each anticipatory bail petition a second look after granting the investigative agency’s appeal.
Two scientists and four other people, including two Maldivian women, were accused of transferring sensitive information about India’s space programme to foreign nations, according to the case, which made news in 1994.
The technology Nambi Narayanan was accused of stealing and selling in the 1994 case did not even exist at the time, according to Nambi Narayanan, who was later cleared by the CBI. He had earlier claimed the Kerala police had “manufactured” the case.
The CBI has claimed that Mr. Narayanan’s unlawful detention was caused by the top police authorities in Kerala at the time.
On September 14, 2018, the top court constituted a three-member committee and ordered the Kerala government to pay Nambi Narayanan 50 lakh as compensation for his “immense humiliation.”
The top court had declared the police action against the former scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to be “psycho-pathological treatment” in September 2018 and stated that his “liberty and dignity,” which are essential to his human rights, were jeopardised as he was taken into custody and ultimately forced to face “cynical abhorrence.”