The CBI has named in its FIR 18 people, including former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews, former deputy director of IB R.B. Sreekumar and SP K.K. Joshua, in the 1994 espionage case involving ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan. The FIR was filed in the Chief Magistrate Court in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram.
Meanwhile, retired Deputy Central Intelligence Officer P.S. Jayaprakash, one of the accused named in the FIR, has moved an anticipatory bail plea in the Kerala High Court. Ordering not to arrest him till Friday, the court has also sought CBI’s view on the petition.
The developments come in the backdrop of the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe in April against cops who allegedly framed space scientist Nambi Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case. The apex court took into record the Justice (Retd) D.K. Jain report in the case.
A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar had then said it was a "serious matter" and needed a CBI probe. The court was considering the application filed by Centre seeking further action on the Jain Commission report in the infamous ISRO Espionage Case regarding the role of erring police officials in the 1994 espionage case relating to Narayanan who had been acquitted and was eventually awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation by the top court.
On April 5, the Centre had moved the top court seeking urgent hearing and consideration of the panel's report terming it as a national issue. The plea sought consideration of the report filed by a high-level committee regarding the role of erring police officials in the 1994 espionage case relating to ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan who had been acquitted and was eventually awarded the compensation.
The espionage case, which had hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to 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 CBI, in its probe, had held that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Narayanan's illegal arrest.
The case also had its political fallout, with a section in the Congress targeting the then Chief Minister late K. Karunakaran over the issue, that eventually led to his resignation.
The 79-year-old former scientist, who was given a clean chit by the CBI, had earlier said that the Kerala police had "fabricated" the case and the technology he was accused to have stolen and sold in the 1994 case did not even exist at that time.
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, and two retired superintendents of police K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.
The case had caught attention in October 1994, when Maldivian national Rasheeda was arrested in Thiruvananthapuram for allegedly obtaining secret drawings of ISRO rocket engines to sell to Pakistan.
Narayanan, the then director of the cryogenic project at ISRO, was arrested along with the then ISRO Deputy Director D Sasikumaran, and Fousiya Hasan, a Maldivian friend of Rasheeda.
