CBI files FIR on conspiracy in ISRO espionage case

The FIR named 18 people including former DGP Siby Mathews, former deputy director of IB, RB Sreekumar and SP KK Joshua, sources said on Thursday.

The CBI team initiated the probe in May this year following a Supreme Court direction to inquire into the conspiracy in the case in which scientist Nambi Narayanan was made accused.

In the FIR, former Circle Inspector of Pettah police station S Vijayan was made the first accused, former sub-inspector Thampi S Durgadath second accused, former city police commissioner V R Rajeevan third accused, former DGP Siby Mathews fourth accused and former deputy director of IB RB Sreekumar seventh accused.

The CBI which had probed the case earlier found it was a fabricated one and later the SC acquitted Nambi Narayanan. After that, the SC directed to probe the conspiracy angle on the basis of DK Jain report.

Reacting to the SC order on April 15, the scientist said: "Because of the fabricated case, the transfer of cryogenic technology was delayed. The country lost 15 years. Though the country accessed the technology in 2014, it should have been in use since 1999."

This is also to be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign in Kerala on April 19, 2019, alleged that Congress never respected scientists, recalling the fate of scientist Nambi Narayanan who was dragged into the spy case by the Congress politicians.

The spy case erupted when Nambi Narayanan was arrested along with another senior official of ISRO, two Maldivian women, and a businessman in 1994, led to a political storm in Kerala. Former chief minister K Karunakaran was forced to quit the office in 1995 following reports that he was trying to protect those involved in the case.

Following an SC order, the Kerala Government had paid Rs 50 lakh compensation to Nambi Narayanan in 2018 for causing him immense humiliation in connection with the 1994 espionage case.