ISRO espionage case: Centre moves SC seeking urgent hearing; matter to be heard next week

The espionage case had hit the headlines in 1994

The Centre on Monday asked the Supreme Court to consider a report of a panel, headed by former top court judge D K Jain, formed in September 2018 by the court to probe the role of Kerala police officers in the wrongful arrest of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in a 1994 espionage case.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, asked a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde to open the sealed cover of the report for passing appropriate orders on Tuesday as the matter was of national importance.

The bench said there was no doubt that the matter was important, but there was no urgency in hearing it. The court, however, agreed to consider the matter next week.

Seventy nine-year-old Narayanan waged a legal battle against the Kerala police officers who accused him of being a Pakistan spy in 1994. Besides appointing the panel, the top court had directed the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation for causing immense humiliation to Narayanan.

Also read: ISRO espionage case: High-level probe panel submits report to SC on Nambi Narayanan's illegal arrest

In 2018, a bench of the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra decided to appoint a committee under Jain and asked the Centre and the Kerala government to name one person each to the committee under Jain. While the Centre appointed a top official -- D K Prasad, the Pinarayi Vijayan government appointed former Additional Chief Secretary V S Senthil.

The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when Narayanan was arrested on charges of espionage along with another senior official of ISRO, two Maldivian women and a businessman.

The CBI had held that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Narayanan's illegal arrest. The panel examined the circumstances leading to Narayanan's arrest. It was alleged that confidential documents on India's space programme were allegedly transferred to foreign countries.

Narayanan had maintained that Kerala police 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.

The Modi government awarded the scientist Padma Bhushan.