New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, December 2, set aside the Kerala high court’s anticipatory bail to former police and intelligence officers in the case of the alleged framing of former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in a 1994 espionage case.
The judgement came on the CBI’s appeal against the high court order granting bail to 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. Sreekumar was then the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Bureau.
A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar sent the bail applications to the high court and asked it to decide on it as early as possible and within four weeks, LiveLaw has reported.
“All these appeals allowed. Impugned orders granting anticipatory bail passed by HC are quashed and set aside. All matters are remitted back to the HC to be decided afresh on it own merits. This court had not observed anything on merits for either of the parties,” the bench said.
The top court directed the registry of the high court to notify bail applications before the bench concerned within one week from today.
“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 apex court said.
Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju appeared for the CBI and senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for some of the respondents, LiveLaw reports.
1994 ‘espionage’ case
The CBI has registered a case against 18 people for various offences, including criminal conspiracy, in connection with the arrest and detention of Narayanan in the espionage case.
The case, which had hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India’s space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.
Narayanan, who was given a clean chit by the CBI, had earlier alleged that the Kerala Police had “fabricated” the case and the technology he was accused to have stolen and sold in the 1994 case did not even exist at that time.
The CBI had said the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Narayanan’s illegal arrest.
The SC had on September 14, 2018 appointed a three-member panel headed by its former judge D.K. Jain while directing the Kerala government to cough up Rs 50 lakh as compensation for compelling Narayanan to undergo “immense humiliation”.
The scientist was arrested when the Congress was heading the government in Kerala. The panel, after completing its investigation, submitted its report in a sealed cover to the apex court in 2021.
Terming the police action against the ex-scientist “psycho-pathological treatment”, the apex court had in 2018 said his “liberty and dignity”, basic to his human rights, were jeopardised as he was taken into custody and, eventually, despite all the glory of the past, was compelled to face “cynical abhorrence”.
HC says ‘no evidence’
The apex court had in November last year issued notice on the CBI’s plea filed in the matter.
The agency had said its probe found that some scientists were tortured and framed in the espionage case due to which the development of cryogenic engine was hit, setting back India’s space programme by almost one or two decades.
The CBI earlier alleged there was a clear indication that the accused were part of a team which had ulterior motives to torpedo the attempts of the ISRO for manufacturing the cryogenic engine.
The CBI, while giving a clean chit to the scientist, had said that Siby Mathews had left “the entire investigation to the IB, surrendering his duties” and ordered the indiscriminate arrest of the scientist and others without adequate evidence.
While granting anticipatory bail to these four accused on August 13 last year, the high court had said, “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.”
Also read: Explainer: The Loose Ends of the Sinister ISRO ‘Spy’ Case
It had said that unless there is specific material regarding their involvement, prima facie, it cannot be said that they were acting against the interests of the country.
LiveLaw has reported that during hearings of this case at the Supreme Court, the latter had said, “The High Court has committed certain wrongs. It has not dealt with Justice Jain committee report, individual allegations not examined. High Court should deal with individual cases individually.”
Meanwhile, the Kerala high court last year also dismissed S. Vijayan’s plea alleging that the ex-ISRO scientist influenced the CBI probe against him back then.
The Gujarat high court in September this year granted interim bail to R.B. Sreekumar in another case in which he had been arrested along with activist Teesta Setalvad for alleged fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 communal riots cases.
(With PTI inputs)