Justice prevails! SC awards Rs 50 lakh compensation to former scientist Nambi Narayanan in ISRO espionage case

New Delhi, September 15: Justice exists and prevails! The Supreme Court on Friday awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation to former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, saying he was “unnecessarily arrested and harassed” by the Kerala Police.

 

Notably, ISRO espionage case was registered by Kerala Police in 1994 against Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran, another ISRO scientist, along with a couple of businessmen and also two Maldivian women who were all accused of collectively siphoning off top documents from ISRO. Nambi Narayanan was sent to jail on November 30, 1994, for 50 days where he was given an extreme mental and physical torture by IB team led by Sreekumar and Kerala Police officials. However, he was later exonerated by the Supreme Court.

Taking a cognizance in the matter, the apex court awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation to former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, saying he was “unnecessarily arrested and harassed” by the Kerala Police for 50 days in the year 1994.

The Supreme Court has also set up a committee under Justice DK Jain to look into Narayanan’s complaint against police officers who framed him. The Centre and state will nominate a member each to the committee.

Earlier, Narayanan had approached the Supreme Court against a Kerala High Court’s judgment, stating that no action was required against officers associated with the investigation including former DGP Siby Mathews and former SPs K K Joshua and S Vijayan. All the officers have retired. Narayanan sought action against police officers who probed the espionage case against him.

Hearing to the matter, a bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud reserved its order in July after the CBI stated that it was ready for a court-monitored probe.