Relief for scientist in ‘spy scandal’

Supreme Court awards Nambi Narayanan Rs5m compensation for arrest, harassment and mental cruelty

Former Kerala chief minister late K. Karunakaran’s bitter experiences over a murky ‘spy scandal’ were brought back into the limelight yesterday when India’s top court ordered compensation for a scientist wrongly indicted in the case.

Reputed space scientist Nambi Narayanan — who worked with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) — was arrested in 1994, charged with spying when he was in charge of the cryogenics division. He and another scientist, D. Sasikumaran, were accused of leaking vital defence secrets to Maldivian women.

Yesterday, a bench of the Supreme Court of India, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, ruled that Narayanan be given Rs5 million (Dh255,256) in compensation for being “arrested unnecessarily, harassed and subjected to mental cruelty”.

The arrest and the lengthy court battles destroyed the career of Narayanan, now in his 70s, once considered one of the brightest Indian scientists in the domain of liquid fuel rocket technology. The scientist had approached the apex court for a probe against the police officials who were involved in framing him. The probe was led by senior police officials Sibi Mathews, K.K. Joshua and S. Vijayan, who are all retired now. In a victory for Narayanan, the apex court ordered a three-member panel to be set up to inquire into the framing of Narayanan.

Forced to quit

One of the indirect victims of the spy case was the then Kerala chief minister, K. Karunakaran, who was pressured to quit his post in the scandal’s wake.

Reacting to the court verdict, Karunakaran’s son and Congress lawmaker K. Muraleedharan said his father was “the only one who did not get justice in the spy case”. Muraleedharan claimed his father was poised to lead the Congress in the backdrop of minorities’ disaffection towards the then prime minister Narasimha Rao, over the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. Karunakaran’s daughter and Congress leader Padmaja Venugopal said it was a “group of five who conspired against Karunakaran”.