The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed the plea of a former police officer, who had accused ex-Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Nambi Narayanan of influencing the Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry against him, Live Law reported.
Justice R Narayana Pisharadi was hearing former police officer S Vijayan’s petition, claiming that Narayanan had bribed some officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation with land deals worth crores.
Vijayan and 17 former Kerala Police and intelligence officers are facing a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry for allegedly falsely implicating Narayanan and six others on the charges of spying for other countries in 1994, PTI reported.
The former police officers were granted anticipatory bail by the Kerala High Court in August.
On Monday, Vijayan told the Kerala High Court that he had submitted encumbrance certificates of several acres of land in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. The former police officer added that the documents mention Narayanan or his son as holders of the power of attorney, Live Law reported.
An encumbrance certificate is used as an evidence of possession of a property that an individual is required to produce during buying or selling of the asset.
Justice Pisharadi observed that the encumbrance certificates did not prove the sale of land. The court asked Vijayan to instead submit the sale deeds to prove his allegations.
The judge also noted that the trial court had rejected Vijayan’s complaint, but not dismissed it. Therefore, the High Court said that Vijayan could move a fresh complaint with relevant documents.
ISRO espionage case
In 1994, former scientist Nambi Narayanan and six other people were accused of selling secrets of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s cryogenic programme to women who were allegedly spying for Russia, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and other countries.
The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In its final report to the chief judicial magistrate in April 1996, the investigation agency said there was a lack of evidence to substantiate the accusations.
All the accused were acquitted by a division bench of the Kerala High Court in November 1998. In its order, the court had said there was no need to take action against the former director general of police Siby Matthews and retired superintendents of police KK Joshua and S Vijayan.
In 2015, Narayanan moved the Supreme Court seeking criminal and disciplinary action against the 18 former Kerala Police and intelligence officers. The former scientists had accused them of falsely implicating him in the case.
In September 2018, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said Narayanan was a victim of the allegations made by the Kerala Police.
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