What was the ISRO spy case, involving scientist Nambi Narayanan? | Explained News,The Indian Express
The Supreme Court on December 2 set aside the Kerala HC order granting anticipatory bail to former police personnel and Intelligence Bureau officials accused of conspiracy to frame Narayanan.
The espionage case, which involved multiple conspiracies, centered around seven people, who were accused of leaking out vital defense secrets. Broadly speaking, this was not a single case, but a series of cases that involved new characters as it unfolded over time. But, what is the case about, who is Nambi Narayanan, and why is it being talked about today? We explain.
The ISRO spy case dates back to October 20, 1994, when the Kerala police registered a case against Mariam Rasheeda, a Maldivian national, under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act 1946 and Section 7 of the Foreigners Order, 1948. The initial charges were of overstaying in India following the cancellation of her flight to Maldives. Following interrogation, the police said that Rasheeda contacted ISRO space scientists who were suspected of having transferred cryogenic engine technology to Pakistan through her. The following month, police registered another case against ISRO scientists D Sasikumaran and Nambi Narayanan, Russian Space Agency Glavkosmos’s India representative Chandrasekhar, Maldivian national Fauzia Hassan, and Bangalore-based labour contractor S K Sharma.
The case was initially probed by Inspector S Vijayan. A special team headed by DIG Siby Mathew arrested Narayanan and other accused. The case was that Narayanan and Sasikumaran had passed on secret documents to other countries, especially Pakistan. They accused Chandrasekhar, Sharma, and inspector-general of Kerala police Raman Srivastava of passing on secrets of the Aeronautical Defence Establishment, Bangalore. They alleged that Chandrasekhar, Sasikumaran, and the two Maldivian women had met secretly to exchange papers and money. The arrested scientists were grilled by Intelligence Bureau sleuths, including Gujarat-cadre IPS officer R B Sreekumar, who was then IB additional director in Kerala.
Working as the in-charge of the cryogenics division at ISRO, Nambi Narayanan is claimed to have foreseen the need for liquid fuelled engines for ISRO’s future civilian space programs and introducing the technology in India as early as the 1970s — the same technology which later he was accused of selling.
Though he was later acquitted by a CBI court and the Supreme Court in 1998, he spent a total of 50 days in jail along with fellow scientist D Sasikumar and four others.
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