Isro spying case: scientist to receive public apology

Former Isro scientist S Nambi Narayanan, whose life and career were destroyed after he was framed in a spying case in the 90s, will get a public apology for the first time on Sunday. Ramesh Babu reports.

Former Isro scientist S Nambi Narayanan, whose life and career were destroyed after he was framed in a spying case in the 90s, will get a public apology for the first time on Sunday.

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Politicians, writers, activists and scribes are coming together to apologise to Narayanan, 78, who introduced liquid fuel rocket technology in India in the 1970s when colleague APJ Abdul Kalam was working on the solid propulsion system, at the Thiruvananthapuram press club.

Kalam rose to great heights and became the country’s President, but Narayanan’s world crashed when he was arrested with colleague D Sasikumaran in 1994 on charges of selling space secrets to two Maldivian women for money.

Former CM K Karunakaran’s son K Muralidharan (an MLA) and writer Paul Zacharia are expected to participate in the session.

“Our political system, media and intelligentsia erred terribly in the case. We can’t give him back what he lost, but we can, at least, introspect where we went wrong,” said Zacharia.

Narayanan was in charge of the space agency’s cryogenic division when the espionage allegations surfaced.