ISRO Espionage Case Against Nambi Narayanan: Supreme Court Asks CBI To Decide On Further Action On Enquiry Report Regarding Investigating Officers

The following are the outcomes of today's hearing :

During the course of hearing today, Advocate Amit Sharma appearing on behalf of former DGP Siby Mathews, submitted that the Committee never called Mathews for considering even a single issue. Furthermore, Sharma also expressed his worry on the Committee making adverse findings against Mathews without hearing him.

At this juncture, Justice Khanwilkar remarked that the said Committee was tasked only to enquire and was "not supposed to adjudicate" the matter in any manner.

In view of this, Sharma requested the Court to not let the report of the Committee be made available in media or public domain. Requesting the Bench to record the aforesaid in the order, Justice Khanwilkar at the outset observed thus:

"The report will remain in sealed cover and will be given to CBI authorities to proceed in accordance with law. The report is not for publication."

On the intervention of Nambi Narayanan's counsel asking if the petitioner can get the copy of the said report, Justice Khanwilkar, while refusing the request, went ahead to remark that the report is for a different purpose which will be used by the CBI and the same cannot be used for the purpose of publication.

"Accused is not supposed to be heard before the registration of the FIR. That is the first principle." Justice Khanwilkar remarked.

At this juncture, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before the Court that the said report be shared with the Acting Director of CBI.

The apex court had appointed the panel on September 14, 2018 while directing the Kerala government to cough up Rs 50 lakh compensation for compelling Narayanan to undergo 'immense humiliation'.

It had ordered setting up of the committee to take appropriate steps against the erring officials for causing 'tremendous harassment' and 'immeasurable anguish' to Narayanan and had directed the Centre and state government to nominate one officer each in the panel. Terming the police action against the ex-scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a 'psycho-pathological treatment', the apex court had in September 2018 said that his 'liberty and dignity', basic to his human rights, were jeopardised as he was taken into custody and, eventually, despite all the glory of the past, was compelled to face 'cynical abhorrence'.

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 three-member investigation panel submitted its report in a sealed cover to the apex court recently.

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.

Over a period of almost two-and-a-half years, the panel headed by Justice Jain examined the circumstances leading to the arrest.

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.

'There can be no scintilla of doubt that the appellant, a successful scientist having national reputation, has been compelled to undergo immense humiliation. The lackadaisical attitude of the state police to arrest anyone and put him in police custody has made the appellant to suffer the ignominy," the apex court had said in its September 2018 order.

'The dignity of a person gets shocked when psycho-pathological treatment is meted out to him. A human being cries for justice when he feels that the insensible act has crucified his self-respect,' the top court had said.

It had accepted Narayanan's plea that the authorities, who were responsible for causing such a 'harrowing effect' on his mind, should face 'legal consequences'.

The CBI, while giving clean chit to the scientist, had said that Siby Mathews had left 'the entire investigation to IB surrendering his duties' and ordered indiscriminate arrest of the scientist and others without adequate evidence being on record.

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.