Maldivian women to oppose Kerala ex-DGP's anticipatory bail plea in ISRO spy case

Over 25-year-old ISRO espionage case of Kerala is all set to come under a fresh review with the Maldivian women accused in the case too joining as parties in the anticipatory bail plea of former DGP Siby Mathews.

Maldives nationals Mariyam Rasheeda and Fousiya Hasan, who were earlier arrested and allegedly subjected to custodial torture in the case, filed impleadment application at the Principal session court in Thiruvananthapuram considering the anticipatory bail plea of former DGP Siby Mathews. They would be opposing bail to Mathews, who headed the special team that probe the 1994 espionage case.

The move assumed significance as Mathews had maintained in the anticipatory bail plea that initial probe clearly proved the nexus of foreign nationals with the others accused and illegal transactions between them and a spy network, linking Colombo, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Maldives, was revealed by questioning Hasan.

The Thiruvananthapuram principal sessions judge P Krishnakumar posted the case for July 12 as anticipatory bail plea of two others arraigned in the case recently registered by the CBI were pending before the High Court. The CBI registered case against 17 persons including Gujarat former DGP R B Sreekumar to investigate the conspiracy angle of the ISRO espionage case of 1994 on the basis of a Supreme Court directive on ISRO former scientist Nambi Narayanan's plea.

Mathews maintained in the anticipatory bail plea that the special team headed by him was pressured by Intelligence Bureau (IB) to arrest Narayanan in the espionage case. R B Sreekumar was then the deputy director of IB.

After the Supreme Court ordered compensation to Narayanan, the two Maldivan women had stated that they would also explore legal options for compensation as well as to take action against the police officials who allegedly tortured them.