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SC finds ISRO case farce, orders Rs 100,000 compensation to each accused

The Supreme Court on Wednesday exonerated the six accused, including scientists S Nambi Narayanan and Sashi Kumar, in the Indian Space Research Organisation espionage case.

A division bench comprising Justices M K Mukherjee and S S M Quadri also quashed a notification of June 27, 1997, which enabled the state police to reopen the case after the Central Bureau of Investigation recommended its closure.

In a 35-page judgment, the SC has directed the Kerala government to pay a compensation of Rs 100,000 to each of the accused.

Besides Narayanan and Shashi Kumar, K Chandrasekhar, an agent of a Russian firm, businessman S K Sharma and two Maldivian nationals, Fouzia Hassan and Mariam Rasheeda, were also charged with passing on drawings and documents relating to the Viking engine and cryogenic technology to foreign agents five years ago.

They had been charged under sections three and four of the Indian Official Secrets Act, 1923.

The special branch of the Kerala police initially investigated the case. Later the CBI took over and, finding the allegations of espionage false, recommended closing the case. The chief judicial magistrate of Ernakulam, too, acquitted the six.

However, the Marxist government headed by E K Nayanar got the state police to reopen the investigation.

The withdrawal notification was challenged before the Kerala high court which held the notification as valid. Whereupon it was appealed in the apex court.

The SC observed that no investigation started by the CBI with the consent of a state government could be stopped midway.

''Even if we hold that the state government had the requisite power and authority to issue the impugned notification, still the same would be liable to be quashed on the ground of malafide exercise of power, eloquent proof of which had come on record in the instant case,'' the judges observed.

On studying the CBI report which runs to over 100 pages, the judges found it had made a detailed investigation from all angles before deciding the allegations were false.

The court said the Indian government had, by supporting the case of the accused in the high court, made it abundantly clear it was satisfied with the CBI's investigation and was strongly opposed to any attempt to reopen the case. Despite this, the court noted, the state government had been pursuing the matter zealously, knowing fully well that the accused could be prosecuted only at the central government's instance.

''We are constrained to say that the issuance of the impugned notification does not comport with the known pattern of a responsible government bound by the rule of law. This is undoubtedly a matter of concern and consternation. We say no more, '' the judges observed.

UNI

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