Almost a quarter century after Nambi Narayanan, one of India’s leading cryogenicists, was arrested on alleged espionage charges, the Supreme Court asked the Government to pay him compensation of Rs.50 lakh. It also directed that a Committee headed by a former SC judge be set up to “find out ways and means to take appropriate steps against the erring officials” who had implicated Narayanan and several others in the ISRO scandal.
The series of notoriously unfortunate events started sometime in 1994 when two Maldivian women were arrested by the Kerala Police; soon, the police claimed to have unearthed a huge espionage network involving senior scientists, who were selling vital documents on India’s cryogenic plans to Pakistan.
Nambi Narayanan, a Princeton scholar handpicked by Vikram Sarabhai, was leading the prestigious cryogenic project at the time. With his arrest, the programme lost its momentum, pushing the country back by several years. Narayanan and others arrested were subjected to inhuman torture; their reputation, career and personal life lay in tatters. But his courage of conviction made him fight against the very forces that were out to lay him to bleed. The State police and the Intelligence Bureau tried to break them down, but the CBI came to their rescue when it categorically reported that the entire expose was fabricated, and woefully bereft of evidence. Consequently, in 1996, the Kerala High Court ordered their discharge.
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