The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
ISRO espionage case outcome of woman spurning advances of Kerala cop, says CBI
THE 1994 ISRO espionage case, in which former space scientist Nambi Narayanan was falsely implicated, was allegedly created by a then special branch officer of Kerala police to justify his illegal detention of a Maldivian woman in India af ter she spurned his advances, the CBI has told a court here.
The agency has made the allegation in a charge sheet filed by it against five former police officers for allegedly implicating Narayanan and five others, including two Maldivian women, in the espionage case.
In the charge sheet, which was filed in the last week of June but became public on Wednesday, the CBI said that the then special branch officer S Vijayan, who retired as an SP, took away the travel documents and air tickets of Maldivian national Mariyam Rasheeda, preventing her from leaving the country, as she spurned his advances.
The agency further said that Vijayan then found out that she was in contact with an ISRO scientist - D Shasikumaran - and based on that a surveillance was mounted on Rasheeda and her Maldivian friend Fauzia Hasan.
The police had also informed the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau ( SIB) about the women, but the IB officers who examined the foreign nationals could not find anything suspicious, the CBI said.
Thereafter, Rasheeda was arrested under the Foreigners Act for overstaying in the country without a valid visa with the knowledge of the then Commissioner of Police, Thiruvananthapuram and then SIB Deputy Director, the CBI said.
Subsequently, the SIT arrested four ISRO scientists including Narayanan, the CBI added.
“To sustain the initial wrongs, another case of serious nature was launched with false interrogation reports against the victims ( including Narayanan and others),” the agency has said in its final report recommending the prosecution of former DGPS R B Sreekumar and Siby Mathews, former SPS S Vijayan and K K Joshua and ex- intelligence officer P S Jayaprakash.
Reacting to the development, Narayanan on Wednesday said that as an individual he was not concerned whether the chargesheeted former police and IB officers were punished or not as his role in the matter was over.
"They have already been punished. They are already suffering. I have no desire that they should go to jail. I do not even expect an apology from them. I would have been happy if they just said that they had made a mistake," Narayanan told reporters.