The ISRO espionage case began with the arrest of Maldivian citizen Mariam Rasheeda by the state police for overstaying in the country without proper documents. The state police and the Intelligence Bureau interrogated her. During the course of investigation, Mariam made certain statements regarding a ring around her which was into spying on the technology used by the ISRO.
Later, the case was handed over to the CBI. But the CBI submitted in its report that there was no evidence to prove the allegations. In 1998, the Supreme Court had found that the allegation of espionage was false and acquitted Nambi Narayanan, another scientist D Sasikumaran, two Bangalore-based businessmen S K Sharma and Chandrasekharan, former IGP Ramon Srivastava and two Maldivian women - Mariam Rasheeda and Fouzia Hassan.
According to the petitioner, he was arrested by the police on November 30, 1994 and was in judicial custody for around two months.
“The violation of the human rights is not merely confined to the period of illegal detention that the petitioner had undergone. Apart from the physical torture faced by Narayanan during interrogation, the mental torture continued even after he was released on bail,” the petition pointed out. Appearing for the Central Government, T Sanjay submitted that it has issued show cause notices to nine IB officials who were found guilty in making the false case.