Former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief and MLA from the state capital K Muraleedharan may have political and personal reasons to demand action against the police officers who investigated the ‘ISRO spy scandal’ in the Nineties, but that does not negate his demand. It is to ‘vindicate’ the honour of his father, the late K Karunakaran, who had to vacate the office of chief minister, that he has made the demand in a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. It is strange that the government has not initiated any action against them for not only causing a bad reputation to the Kerala Police but also for playing with the lives of some Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) employees.
What Nambi Narayanan, a pious senior scientist with the ISRO, and his family underwent is horrendous. He was arrested and tortured in police custody for his alleged links with a female spy and handing over secret documents to her, while his family was ostracised. This was despite there being no evidence against him. Ordinarily, a case of espionage against such a person would not have been registered without prima facie evidence. That the police went ahead with the investigation proved that there was more than met the eye in the move. It was, perhaps, part of a political game in which the poor man became just a pawn.
When the CBI, which investigated the case subsequently, found that the charges of espionage and moral turpitude against Narayanan were without any basis, summary action should have been initiated against the police officers concerned. The charges against the officers were not just ineptitude and shoddy investigation but attempt to frame an innocent person for no rhyme or reason. Elsewhere in the world, they would have been put behind bars. Far from that, they were allowed to continue in service with one of them provided with a post-retirement sinecure. A compensation of Rs 10 lakh for Narayanan, ordered by the high court, is meaningless without punishment for the guilty police officers.
