NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a plea by a former ISRO scientist, who was discharged in an espionage case, seeking action against former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews and others who had probed the matter.
Nambi Narayanan had approached the apex court against the judgement of the Kerala High Court which had said that no action was required to be taken against the former DGP and two retired Superintendents of Police, K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved the verdict on Narayanan's petition. Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, appearing for the CBI, maintained that no allegation has been made by the scientist that he was tortured or harassed during the investigation by the CBI.
"We have nothing to hide. There is no need for us to pay compensation to Nambi Narayanan. Let there be a Supreme Court monitored probe," the ASG said.
76-year-old Nambi Narayanan, while functioning as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, was arrested on November 30, 1994, alleging espionage. Later, Narayanan had told the court that the entire probe in the ISRO case was found to be "malicious" and the CBI had filed a closure report which was accepted by the magistrate. The apex court was hearing the plea of the Narayanan who sought action against former DGP Siby Mathews and others who were part of the Special Investigation Team in Kerala in 1994, which had probed the case in which he was framed. Kerala government had said that on investigation, it has found no role could be attributed to the police officers for false implication. The former ISRO scientist had filed an appeal against the judgement of division bench of the Kerala High Court which had said no action needed to be taken against the police officials. Later, he had approached the NHRC claiming compensation from the state government for the mental agony and torture suffered by him and had awarded an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh in March 2001.