Supreme Court orders CBI probe against shoddy ISRO spy case investigation
Nambi Narayanan was falsely accused of stealing and selling confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries. He was arrested when Congress was heading the government in Kerala. The CBI has been directed to file a report in three months.
FollowThe Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the sham espionage case against ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in 1994.
The Apex court directive came after it perused the sealed cover report submitted by former Supreme Court judge, Justice DK Jain, in the 1994 Indian Space Research Organisation espionage case.
The CBI has been directed to file a report in three months.
Nambi Narayanan was falsely accused of stealing and selling confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries. He was arrested when Congress was heading the government in Kerala.
The 79-year-old scientist was acquitted after the CBI gave him a clean chit. The CBI had also claimed that the Kerala police had "fabricated" the case, and the technology that Nambi was accused of stealing did not even exist in 1994.
The Supreme Court had appointed the panel on September 14, 2018, while directing the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation for the "immense humiliation" of Narayanan.
The top court ordered setting up of the committee to take appropriate steps against the erring officials responsible for causing tremendous harassment and immeasurable anguish to Narayanan.
A bench comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar directed that the CBI will be at liberty to treat the report as a preliminary report.
