SC Setback for 4 Accused Who Framed ISRO Scientist

New Delhi: Hearing the case of alleged frame up of scientist Nambi Narayan in the 1994 ISRO espionage case, the Supreme Court quashed the anticipatory bail granted to four accused on Friday. Kerala High Court had granted anticipatory bail to four persons including a former Director General of Police (DGP). The CBI had appealed in the apex court against this anticipatory bail order.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar remanded the matter back to the Kerala High Court with the direction that the matter has to be decided within four weeks.

The top court directed the registry of the high court to notify bail applications before the bench concerned within one week from today.

The Supreme Court bench however added that “Till then by way of an interim arrangement, and without prejudice to rights, it is directed that for a period of five weeks and till the bail applications are finally decided by HC on remand, the respondents may not be arrested subject to cooperation in the investigation.”

The accused in this case include former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar, two former police officers of Kerala S Vijayan and Thampi S Durga Dutt, and a retired intelligence official P S Jayaprakash.

It is alleged that these police officials had falsely implicated ISRO scientist Nambi Narayan in an espionage case with the charges that he had transferred documents of India’s space research to an enemy country. Later CBI investigation proved that the scientist was innocent.