THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hardly a week after TNIE exposed the chinks in the out-of-court settlement reached in the decades-old ISRO espionage case, the state government has filed a review petition before the sub court, Thiruvananthapuram, seeking to fix the liability of paying `1.3 crore compensation to former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan on then police officials who had investigated the case.K Jayachandran, government pleader, told TNIE after the state government filed a review petition, the court had served notice on respondents six to 11 and the case is posted for hearing on Wednesday.
In the review petition, the state contends that it has not mentioned in the GO -- (GO (Ms) No.203/2019/Home) -- issued for paying compensation to Nambi that no recovery should be made from the officials concerned. Further, the unconditional withdrawal memo filed by Nambi as part of the out-of-court settlement makes no mention of such a prayer. It is in this backdrop, the state government decided on the review petition, he said.
Earlier, considering the settlement reached between the state government and the plaintiff, the court had ruled that no personal liability can be fixed on defendants six to 11 (Sibi Mathew (then Vigilance IG), T P Senkumar (former state police chief), then DySPs S Vijayan, Jogesh, Mathew John, Joint director (IB), and R B Sreekumar, deputy director -IB) and no recovery will be made from any of the defendants for the compensation paid to the plaintiff. No steps or disciplinary action or departmental inquiry is pending against any of the defendants, the court had ruled. Before issuing the order, the court had heard both parties. But the defendants submitted that they were not in favour of the settlement as it was arrived at by the state and the plaintiff without hearing them out and without their knowledge. So they apprehend that the compensation amount is likely to be recovered from them as they were arrayed as defendants in their personal capacity. After considering all these aspects, the court ordered that no liability and recovery can be fixed on the defendants.
The state government has gone for an out-of-court settlement at a time when the case was about to be disposed of by the court after the nearly two decade-long trial. Though the plaintiff had sought Rs 1 crore compensation in his suit, the state government has decided to give him a sum of `1.3 core, with 18% interest per annum from the date of suit till realisation.
This has raised suspicions over the government move. If it really wanted to fix liability on the officials in case of an adverse verdict, why did it go in for an out-of-court settlement, offering `1.3 crore instead of the `1 crore the plaintiff sought? It could have waited for the court to dispose of the suit after the trial. Second, if the court issued an order at the end of the trial in favour of the government, the state would not have to carry the burden of `1.3 crore. Now, the state has committed to give `1.3 crore to the plaintiff and Nmabi had unconditionally withdrawn the case as per the agreement.After all these, the state government now realised that the liability should be fixed on the officials who implicated him in the case.