ISRO spy case: CBI lodges FIR against 18 for conspiracy

Thiruvananthapuram: The CBI (Centra Bureau of Investigation) lodged an FIR, in the notorious ISRO spy case, at the Chief Judicial Magistrate court here on Thursday, reports IANS. Eighteen people were named in the FIR, including two former top Kerala police officers, for conspiracy and fabrication of documents.

The FIR listed former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews, former Gujarat DGP RB Sreekumar and police officials S Vijayan, Thampi S Durgadutt and KK Joshua. Sreekumar was IB director, and the three police officials were in local police when the ISRO case surfaced in 1994.

Regarding the spy case, Nambinarayanan and another senior ISRO official, along with two Maldivian women and a businessman, were arrested on charges of espionage. The CBI had cleared Nambinarayanan a year later, but he continued fighting against those police officers who falsely named him then.

After Nambinarayanan's years of court battles, the Supreme Court last year appointed a committee to probe if a conspiracy was brewed to falsely implicate him. Based on the report submitted by the committee headed by retired judge Justice DK Jain, the top court ordered the CBI to conduct a fresh probe. Eventually, the CBI filed FIR last day.

Nambinarayanan has received compensation of 1.90 crores from various agencies, including the Kerala government, for his suffering for wrongful imprisonment, malicious prosecution and humiliation. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2019.