Nambi Narayanan arrested without proof: Jain panel report
KOCHI: Former Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan was arrested by Kerala police in 1994 without any material or record to show his involvement in the ‘espionage’, according to the Justice D K Jain Committee report. The committee found the arrests of Isro scientists B Sasikumaran and K Chandrasekharan, and labour contractor S K Sharma too were without any proof. The panel, which delved into the conspiracy angle in the espionage case, suggested a detailed investigation into the physical and mental torture of Nambi and Chandrasekharan by interrogators.
The portion of the report, accessed by TNIE, is part of the FIR filed by the CBI before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram, on June 17. The case, which had made headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India’s space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivians.
Citing the report, the seventh paragraph of the FIR stated the undocumented interrogation of Maldivian Mariyam Rashida was illegal. The report also cited “deliberate leaking of information to the press by the investigating agency to create a narrative implicating the scientists”.
The panel also mentioned the representation by Narayanan before it alleging that during the course of his arrest and interrogation he was pressured by the interrogators to falsely implicate his immediate bosses Muthunayagam and U R Rao of ISRO in the matter. Narayanan had also informed the panel “there was deliberate attempt to remove him from the development of Cryogenic technology and there was a design to harm the ISRO cryogenic technology project”.