ISRO espionage case: SC rejects HC order for bail to former officers

A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said the anticipatory bail pleas are “relegated to the high court to be decided afresh” within four weeks.

New Delhi

The CBI argued the FIR was filed in line with a Supreme Court direction in April 2021 to probe charges against the police officers. (HT Photo)

The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Kerala high court’s order granting anticipatory bail to five former police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officers in the case related to the alleged framing of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist S Nambi Narayanan and two others for espionage in 1994.

A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said the anticipatory bail pleas are “relegated to the high court to be decided afresh” within four weeks. “As an interim arrangement, for a period of five weeks, till the bail application is decided, the accused will not be arrested, subject to their cooperation with the investigation,” the bench said.

The order came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moved the top court challenging two orders, issued on August 13 and November 16, 2021, of the high court that granted granting anticipatory bail to former Gujarat DGP RB Sreekumar, then posted with IB, former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews, S Vijayan, Thampi S Durgadutt, and PS Jayaprakash, saying the First Information Report (FIR) in the matter was filed after considerable delay.

The CBI argued the FIR was filed in line with a Supreme Court direction in April 2021 to probe charges against the police officers. The top court’s order was based on an inquiry report of former Supreme Court judge DK Jain.

The CBI claimed it suspected a “foreign hand” behind the conspiracy to arrest Narayanan and two other scientists who were involved in developing an indigenous cryogenic rocket engine.

The bench, giving reasons for setting aside the HC order, said: “While granting anticipatory bail to the accused, the High Court has neither considered the allegations against the respective accused nor the role played by them nor the position held by them at the time of registering the FIR in the year 1994 nor the role played by them during the investigation of the case.”

Further, the top court added: “The high court has also not taken note of the recommendations made by the committee headed by Justice DK Jain, a former judge of this court.”

The Kerala Police arrested the three scientists in November 1994 alleging they were part of a conspiracy to pass on secrets to a Maldivian national. The matter was transferred to the CBI in December 1994 before it closed the case.

The Kerala government reopened the investigation before the top court in September 2018 set it aside and asked Justice Jain to probe the purported conspiracy to arrest the ISRO scientists. The top court ordered the state police to pay ₹50 lakh compensation to Narayanan.

Justice Jain submitted his report to the top court in March 2021. The court directed the CBI on April 15 last year to register a case based on the report.