New Delhi (The Hawk): The Kerala High Court ruling granted anticipatory relief to four people—including a former director general of police (DGP)—in a case involving the alleged framing of scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 ISRO espionage matter was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The matter was sent back to the high court with the instruction that it make a decision within four weeks, according to a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar.
"These appeals were all granted. The challenged decisions, which were issued by the HC and granted anticipatory bail, are reversed. All issues are sent back to the HC for new decisions based on their own merits. This court has not made any findings about the merits for either party.
"The HC is ultimately responsible for giving commands. We ask the HC to rule on anticipatory bail requests as soon as possible, ideally within four weeks of the date of this ruling "stated the bench.
"These appeals were all granted. The challenged decisions, which were issued by the HC and granted anticipatory bail, are reversed. All issues are sent back to the HC for new decisions based on their own merits. This court has not made any findings about the merits for either party.
"The HC is ultimately responsible for giving commands. We ask the HC to rule on anticipatory bail requests as soon as possible, ideally within four weeks of the date of this ruling "stated the bench.
At the time, Sreekumar served as the Intelligence Bureau's deputy director (IB).
On the CBI's plea in the case, the top court had given notice in November of last year.
The agency had claimed that its investigation had revealed that certain scientists had been subjected to torture and had been falsely implicated in an espionage case, which had hampered the development of cryogenic engines and delayed India's space programme by almost one or two decades.
The accused were allegedly members of a group that had ulterior objectives to thwart the ISRO's attempts to produce the cryogenic engine, according to earlier claims made by the CBI.
The high court had stated, "There is not even a scintilla of evidence regarding the petitioners being influenced by any foreign power so as to induce them to hatch a conspiracy to falsely implicate the scientists of the ISRO with the intention to stall the activities of the ISRO with regard to the development of the cryogenic engine," when it granted anticipatory bail to these four accused on August 13 of last year. It had stated that it cannot be inferred that they were operating against the interests of the nation until there is concrete evidence of their involvement.
In conjunction with the arrest and custody of Narayanan in the espionage case, the CBI has filed a complaint against 18 people for a number of offences, including criminal conspiracy.
The case, which made news in 1994, involved accusations that two scientists and four other people, including two Maldivian women, transferred some classified documents about India's space programme to foreign nations.
After receiving a clean bill of health from the CBI, Narayanan had previously claimed that the Kerala Police had "manufactured" the case against him and that the technology he was charged with stealing and selling in the 1994 case did not even exist at the time.
The CBI had claimed that Narayanan's wrongful detention was caused by the state of Kerala's top police officials at the time. On September 14, 2018, the Supreme Court created a three-member committee and ordered Kerala to pay Narayanan Rs. 50 lakh in damages for subjecting him to "immense humiliation."
The apex court had stated in September 2018 that the police action against the former scientist of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) constituted "psycho-pathological treatment" and that it jeopardised his "liberty and dignity," which are essential components of his human rights, as he was taken into custody and ultimately forced to deal with "cynical abhorrence."
(Inputs from Agencies)