Supreme Court sets aside Kerala High Court bail order in ISRO espionage case

The Supreme Court Friday set aside Kerala High Court orders granting anticipatory bail to former police and intelligence bureau officers, including former state police chief Siby Mathews and former ADGP Gujarat R B Sreekumar in connection with the alleged framing of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case in 1994.

A bench led by Justice M R Shah allowed the appeals filed by the CBI and quashed the High Court's orders. The court asked the high court to decide the plea afresh within four weeks.

“We request the high court to finally decide and dispose of the anticipatory bail applications at the earliest, but preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of these orders," the bench said.

The court also gave protection from arrest to the accused for a period of five weeks, subject to their cooperation with the investigation, which is an interim arrangement till the high court finally decided the matter.

In its judgement, the top court noted that what is weighed with the High Court is that FIR is filed after a number of years. However, the High Court has not appreciated at all that the FIR was lodged pursuant to direction by the top court and on the basis of recommendation by Justice D K Jain committee.

"The High Court has neither considered the allegations against the respective accused nor the role played by them nor the position held by them at the time of registering the FIR in the year 1994 nor the role played by them during the investigation of the crime (spying case)," the bench said.

The top court had in its order on April 15, 2021 directed the CBI to probe into the alleged involvement of some Kerala police officers in framing the former ISRO scientist, Narayanan, who was accused of spying in 1994.

The court had then taken into record the report submitted by the three-member panel, headed by former SC judge Justice D K Jain, which stated that it was a serious issue and required further investigation.

The top court had in 2018 awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation to 80-year-old Narayanan who fought a long battle against the Kerala police officers who accused him of being a Pakistan spy. Narayanan was subsequently awarded Padma Bhushan.