The Kerala High Court restrained the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from arresting two former police officers, who have been accused of conspiracy to frame scientist Nambi Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case of 1994. Live Law tweeted that S Vijayan and Thampi S Durga were granted an interim bail for two weeks.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court said that the inquiry report of retired SC judge Justice DK Jain on the conspiracy angle in the case was not sufficient to proceed against the accused former officers, which includes former Kerala police chief Siby Mathews. The CBI must collect evidence independently in the case and not rely solely on the DK Jain report, the SC said.
Advocate Amit Sharma, appearing as counsel for Siby Mathews, and Advocate Kaleeswaram Raja, appearing as counsel for the other accused, told the court that the DK Jain report was not shared with the accused. They argued that this resulted in prejudice against the accused in getting bail for the CBI's First Information Report (FIR). The court then said that the report was only 'initial information' and cannot be the basis for prosecution.
However, the CBI's counsel, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said that an earlier court order prohibited the publication of the DK Jain report. He added that the CBI's FIR which has a gist of the report could be uploaded the same day. The court said that it was only the DK Jain report that was prohibited from publication, and not the FIR. The SC also said that the accused can resort to all possible legal remedies, as decided by the concerned courts.
The DK Jain inquiry commission was appointed by the SC in September 2018 and the Kerala government was asked to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to scientist Nambi Narayanan for the humiliation he went through. Two years after paying Rs 50 lakh, the government also paid a compensation of Rs 1.30 crore to Nambi Narayanan as settlement in a case the scientist filed at a sub-court seeking enhanced damages.
The CBI was given charge of investigating the conspiracy angle based on the DK Jain report in April this year. The CBI then registered its FIR naming several police officers who had handled the ISRO espionage case in the 1990s. Four years after he was arrested and allegedly tortured, Nambi Narayanan was cleared of all charges by the Supreme Court.
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