Former Supreme Court judge, Justice D K Jain headed panel has submitted its report to the apex court on taking erring cops to task for causing "tremendous harassment" and "immeasurable anguish" to ISRO scientist Dr Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 espionage case.
The top court had on September 14, 2018 appointed the three-member panel while directing the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation for compelling Narayanan to undergo "immense humiliation".
The scientist was arrested when the Congress was heading the government in Kerala. The panel, after investigation, submitted its report in a sealed cover to the apex court recently.
The CBI, in its probe, had held that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Narayanan's illegal arrest.
The case also had its political fallout, with a section in the Congress targeting the then Chief Minister late K Karunakaran over the issue, that eventually led to his resignation.
Over a period of almost two-and-a-half years, the panel headed by Justice Jain examined the circumstances leading to the arrest.
The espionage case, which had hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.
The 79-year-old former scientist, who was given a clean chit by the CBI, maintained that the Kerala Police had "fabricated" the case and the technology he was accused to have stolen and sold in the 1994 case did not even exist at that time.
Narayanan had approached the apex court against a Kerala High Court judgement that said "no action needed to be taken" against former DGP Siby Mathews, who was then heading the SIT probe team, two retired superintendents of police, K K Joshua and S Vijayan, and the then Deputy Director, Intelligence Bureau, R B Shreekumar, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.
(Published 03 April 2021, 10:29 IST)
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