Kerala HC grants interim bail to ex-cops in ISRO conspiracy case

Thiruvananthapuram, July 27: In the major development in the ISRO espionage case, the Kerala High Court has restrained the Central Bureau of Investigation from arresting both the accused in the case.

During the hearing of the case, Justice Ashok Menon passed the judgment and granted the interim anticipatory bail to former Kerala police officers, S Vijayan, and Tampi S Durga Dutt. The court ordered the bail on their executing a bond for ₹50,000 with the two solvent sureties to the sum if the CBI arrested the petitioners.

The court also extended the interim order directing CBI not to arrest P.S.Jayaprakash, former Central intelligence officer and 11th accused in the case for two weeks.

The court, however, added that they would have to cooperate with the investigation. The police were accused of hatching a conspiracy to frame former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan and others in the espionage case.

On April 15, the top court had ordered a CBI to probe in the 1994 espionage case based on the contents of the enquiry report submitted by Justice DK Jain. After reviewing the report, the top court observed that the matter is very serious and said it requires a CBI probe.

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The bench had asked the then-acting CBI director to take charge of the case and treat the inquiry report given by the Justice Jain panel as a preliminary inquiry report to conduct further investigation into the matter and asked the CBI to file a status report on its investigation in three months.

What is the Nambi Narayan Defamation case?

In 1994, Narayanan was charged for leaking vital defense secrets to two alleged Maldivian intelligence officers, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan. He was further arrested and was put behind bars for 50 days. The interrogation process which involved the Intelligence Bureau was the one to interrogate him. They wanted to force a statement from him, but he was tortured until he collapsed and was further hospitalized.

The CBI dropped charges against him in 1996. The Supreme Court followed suit and dropped them in 1998. Kerala Government later settled the case and paid compensation of over 1.3 crores to Nambi for the torture and mental agony that he and his family had faced. On April 14, 2021, the Supreme Court of India ordered a CBI probe into the involvement of police officers in the conspiracy. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by President Ram Nath Kovind in 2019.