24 yrs later Nambi wins lone battle

S. Nambi Narayanan is a former Isro scientist is credited with building India's first liquid- propellant motors that later matured into the cryogenic engines that continue to power PSLVs and GSLVs into orbit till date.

CRYOGENIC WAR In 1992, India had signed an agreement with Russia for transfer of technology to develop cryogenicbased fuels. The agreement was signed for ` 235 crore, when the US and France were offering the same technology for Rs 950 crore and ` 650 crore, respectively. US raised objections with Russia against the agreement and even threatened to blacklist the country from the select- five club. Russia succumbed to the pressure and denied cryogenic technology to India. To bypass this monopoly, India signed a new agreement with Russia to fabricate four cryogenic engines after floating a global tender without a formal transfer of technology. Isro had already reached a consensus with Kerala Hitech Industries Limited ( Keltch) which would have provided the cheapest tender for fabricating engines. But this did not happen as the spy scandal surfaced in late 1994.

THE SUPREME COURT RULING

The Supreme Court in its ruling on September 14 through the bench of Dipak Misra awarded a compensation of ` 50 lakh to Nambi Narayan, to be recovered from the state government within eight weeks. The apex court also constituted a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge D. K. Jain to inquire into the role of Kerala police officials in the arrest of Narayanan.

■ The historic verdict was passed on an appeal filed by Mr Narayanan challenging a 2015 judgment of Kerala HC. ■ Narayanan was “arrested unnecessarily, harassed and subjected to mental cruelty” in a 1994 spy case.