Investigation begins to inquire about the ISRO scientist’s unauthorised arrest case

Press Trust of India reported that, a high-level inquiry committee appointed by the Supreme Court to take misbehaving police officers to duty for causing “tremendous harassment” and “immeasurable anguish” to ISRO scientist Dr Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 spying case has submitted its report to the top court.

The Supreme Court had on September 14, 2018, appointed a three-member panel directed by its previous judge D K Jain while directing the Kerala government to choke up Rs 50 lakh compensation for compelling Mr Narayanan to undergo “immense humiliation”.

The scientist was arrested while Congress was ruling the government in Kerala. The board, after inquiry, submitted its report in a sealed cover to the top court recently.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its examination, had held that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Mr Narayanan’s illegal arrest. The case also had its political byproduct, with a section in the Congress targeting the then Chief Minister late K Karunakaran over the issue, which eventually led to his resignation.

Over a period of almost two-and-a-half years, the committee managed by Justice Jain reviewed the factors leading to the arrest.

The spying case, which had hit the headings in 1994, concerned accusations 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 79-year-old former scientist, who was given a clean image by the CBI, maintained that the Kerala Police had “fabricated” the case and the technology he was blamed to have stolen and sold in the 1994 case did not even exist at that time. Mr Narayanan had approached the top court against a Kerala High Court judgement that said “no action needed to be taken” against former DGP Siby Mathews, who was then directing the SIT inquiry 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.