September 14,2018:
On Friday, Supreme Court directed payment of Rs 50 Lakh compensation to Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Scientist who has alleged mental cruelty and torture by Kerala Police after his arrest in 1994 in a Spy Scandal.
SC Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra stated that,"Nambi Narayanan was "arrested unnecessarily, harassed and subjected to mental cruelty," said a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, ruling on the ISRO spy case.
Supreme Court asked Former Supreme Court Judge DK Jain to investigate his allegations against Kerala police officers.
Former ISRO Scientist, now in his seventies, had petitioned Supreme Court stating he had been illegally detained and tortured.
He was in charge of Cryogenics division when he was charged with spying and arrested.
CBI, which took over the probe from the Kerala Police in 1996, stated that the case against Nambi Narayanan was baseless, and closed it. CBI Report also listed several lapses committed by the police officers and recommended action against them.
In 1998, Supreme Court granted compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to Mr Narayanan and others who were discharged in the ISRO spy case. State government was directed to pay the amount.
Nambi Narayanan's petition in the Supreme Court challenged a high court order backing the Kerala government's decision to drop action against police officers Siby Mathew, KK Joshua and S Vijayan.
Nambi Narayanan is said to have introduced the liquid fuel rocket technology in India in the early 1970s.
In 1994, Mr Narayanan was charged with leaking vital defence secrets to two alleged Maldivian intelligence officers. Defense officials claimed the secrets involved highly confidential "flight test data" from experiments with rocket and satellite launches.
Nambi Narayanan and another scientist, D Sasikumaran, were accused of selling ISRO secrets for millions.
Mr Narayanan was arrested and spent 50 days in jail. Later, the CBI investigated and said the charges were false.
Source TOI
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