THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI should probe in detail the cover-ups in the ISRO espionage case rather than investigating the role of erring police officers, says former RAW officer Rajesh Pillai who was then posted at the Thiruvananthapuram airport.
In a brief chat with TNIE, Pillai says the RAW office in Thiruvananthapuram — even before the case made headlines — had received intimation from its Delhi office that the transit of Mariam Rasheeda, who was arraigned a spy in the ISRO case and acquitted later, should be blocked were she to pass through the airport. Excerpts.
Did the RAW communication have anything specific about Mariam Rasheeda, like her possible links to foreign agencies?
No. In fact, there were attempts by Sri Lankan refugees who had reached India illegally to migrate to Europe after obtaining passports from here. Her name was included in the list of such people. We didn’t have any other information regarding her. Around two weeks after the incident, she was arrested by the police in Thiruvananthapuram.
Did RAW carry out any probe into the spy case?
Yes, RAW had initially launched an investigation into the case. But it was stopped halfway after the intervention of the office of the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, when the name of Prabhakar Rao was dragged into the case.
Did you receive any incriminating material before the investigation was called off?
There is no point in discussing them now. But it’s true that a Russian private aircraft had reached the Trivandrum International Airport as part of some suspicious transactions. Massive cover-ups happened in the case then and none of the investigations touched the heart of the issue.
How do you view the previous CBI investigation?
The CBI mainly looked into the circumstances that led to the registration of a spy case by the Kerala police at the insistence of IB.
Would the SC order to probe the role of Kerala officers reopen the case?
A comprehensive investigation should be carried out to know what happened and what went wrong.
Many theories were afloat then and the role of the CIA was widely discussed.
I don’t think the CIA was behind the case. Those who have no idea about the operations of the CIA are spreading rumours about it.
A lot of people had then fished in muddy waters.
Yes, the then Chief Minister K Karunakaran had no role in the spy case. Though he became a victim, he was innocent.