ISRO espionage case: Ex-IB officer Sreekumar pressurised to arrest Nambi, reveals Siby Mathews

Thiruvananthapuram: As the Supreme Court has decided to take a strong stand for a fresh CBI probe in the infamous ISRO spy case, the then top Kerala Police official Siby Mathews has now blamed the then IB official R.B. Sreekumar for pressuring him to arrest then top ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan and two Maldives women.

Mathews, who a decade back took voluntary retirement from the post of director general of police, made this disclosure in his bail application filed before a court in the state capital, which surfaced in the media on Tuesday.

Relying on the details provided by the IB and RAW,Mathews pointed out that Sreekumar, then a joint director in the Intelligence Bureau, pressurised him to arrest the scientist and the women from Maldives.

Pressure was also exerted to arrest police official Raman Srivasatava, who later retired as the State Police chief and was the advisor to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his first term (2016-21).But Srivasatava came out unscathed in the case, though his name made headlines then.

Mathews' bail application also points out that espionage was taking place and there was a spy network in the state capital, from the statements of Maldivian women Mariam Rasheeda and Fouzia Hassan.

This activity began after the new team of CBI officials arrived here last week and took the statement of Nambi Narayanan.

Meanwhile, the new CBI team is looking if there was any conspiracy on the part of the probe teams of the Kerala Police and the IB.

Last week the CBI registered an FIR with the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court against 18 people, including top former Kerala police and IB officials, who have been charged with conspiracy and fabrication of documents.

The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when Nambi Narayanan was arrested on charges of espionage along with another senior ISRO official, two Maldivian women and a businessman.

The CBI freed Narayanan in 1995 and since then he has been fighting a legal battle against Mathews, Vijayan and Joshua who probed the case and falsely implicated him.

Things changed for Nambi Narayanan after numerous long-drawn court battles when the Supreme Court in 2020 appointed a three-member committee headed by retired judge Justice D.K. Jain to probe if there was a conspiracy among the then police officials to falsely implicate Narayanan.

Moreover, Narayanan has now received a compensation of Rs 1.9 crore from various agencies, including the Kerala government which in 2020 paid him Rs 1.3 crore and later awarded Rs 50 lakh as directed by the Supreme Court in 2018 and another Rs 10 lakh ordered by the National Human Rights Commission, for suffering wrongful imprisonment, malicious prosecution and humiliation.