Former Kerala DGP gets anticipatory bail in ISRO spy case

Thiruvananthapuram: Former Kerala Director General of Police Siby Mathews who has been charged in the ISRO spy case was granted anticipatory bail by a Thiruvananthapuram court. The CBI has booked Mathews for conspiracy and fabrication of documents.

The CBI registered the FIR with the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court. The FIR has charged 18 retired officers from Kerala Police and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), including two top former Kerala police officers, reported The News Minute.

Siby Mathews served as Kerala DGP in 2011 and had taken voluntary retirement in 2016 only months before he was to be superannuated to become Kerala's Chief Information Officer.

Former Gujarat DGP and then Intelligence Bureau (IB) Deputy Director RB Sreekumar is also one of the accused. Other culprits are local police officers - S Vijayan, Thampi S Durgadutt, KK Joshua.

The ISRO spy case began in 1994 when then scientist Nambi Narayan was arrested for espionage. He was accused of leaking vital information regarding flight tests of rockets with satellite launches to two Maldivian intelligence officers - Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan. Another senior ISRO official, D. Sasikumaran was also arrested for selling the data for millions.

The infamous ISRO spy case came to a turning point when the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee in 2020 to investigate whether the police officers falsely implicated former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayan. The committee was headed by retired justice DK Jain. The court had ordered the CBI also to conduct a new probe.

After he was freed by 1995, Nambi Narayan received compensation of Rs 1.9 crore from various agencies including the Kerala government and the National Human Rights Commission for wrongful imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and humiliation. He also won the Padma Bhushan in 2019, said the TNM report.