THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government is likely to arraign the officials accused of falsely implicating former scientist S Nambi Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case, as the review petition filed by the state government in the sub court, Thiruvananthapuram, seeking to remove a clause in its earlier verdict has been accepted.
It may be recalled that while disposing of the case following an out-of-the-court settlement between the state government and Nambi, the court had made it clear that no liability or recovery can be fixed on defendants six to 11 in the case -- Sibi Mathew (then Vigilance IG), T P Senkumar (former state police chief), then DySPs S Vijayan, Jogesh, joint director (IB) Mathew John, and deputy director (IB) R B Sreekumar. K Jayachandran, government pleader, told TNIE the state government had issued an order after settling the case out of court.
The order had no mention that no recovery has to be made from the officials. The unconditional withdrawal memo filed by Nambi had also not contended that defendants should be allowed to walk free. However, while accepting the settlement, the court ruled that no liability and recovery can be fixed on the defendants -- an arbitrary decision.
Now, as the court has agreed to remove the clause from its earlier judgment, it is the discretion of the state government whether to fix the liability or effect any revenue recovery from officials. Earlier, the 20-year-old compensation suit filed by Nambi seeking `1 crore was settled, after the government agreed to pay him `1.3 crore. But it had left out too many loose ends. TNIE published an article titled ‘ISRO espionage case comes to an end, but questions remain’ on February 16, questioning the way the government settled the case.
Following this, the state government moved the sub court again, seeking to remove the ‘no liability and recovery’ clause by the first week of March. Interestingly, the judge who wrote the first judgment and later allowed the review petition, was transferred to Kannur soon after the review petition was accepted. Kavitha Gangadharan, additional sub judge-1, Thiruvananthapuram, has been transferred as additional chief judicial magistrate, Thalasserry, along with 12 others.
Why the state government went for an out-of-the-court settlement when the case was heading for its logical conclusion after a long-drawn legal battle is still not clear. In the two-decade-long case, after the evidence was closed in 2011, the court had posted the case for argument around 110 times in the last nine years. Yet, both parties refused to start arguments. It is still unclear on how the state arrived at the compensation amount.