By PTI
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A court docket right here on Wednesday adjourned until July 12 the listening to on the anticipatory bail plea of former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews in a case registered by CBI in opposition to him and 17 different law enforcement officials in reference to the ISRO espionage case.
They have been booked for offences together with legal conspiracy and kidnapping and fabrication of proof, beneath the IPC, in reference to arrest and detention of former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan within the 1994 espionage case.
Principal District and Sessions Judge P Krishnakumar posted the matter to subsequent week after the District court docket was informed that bail purposes of two different accused within the case had been pending earlier than the Kerala High Court and that the matter was prone to be heard through the day. “If similar matters are pending before the High Court, let’s see what happens there,” the court docket mentioned.
Besides Mathews’ anticipatory bail plea, Narayanan’s utility to be impleaded within the matter was additionally listed earlier than the district court docket. Right at first of the listening to, Mathews’ lawyer opposed the impleadment utility of Narayanan. Narayanan, represented byadvocate C Unnikrishnan, has opposed grant of any aid to Mathews.
During the transient proceedings, the district court docket was additionally informed that the 2 Maldives nationals — Mariyam Rasheeda and Fousiya Hasan — who had been additionally arrested within the espionage case could be submitting impleadment purposes as properly.
In his anticipatory bail plea, Mathews has claimed he and senior Kerala Police officers had been pressurised by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to arrest Narayanan within the espionage case.
He had additionally claimed instances beneath the Foreigners Act and the Official Secrets Act had been registered in opposition to Rasheeda primarily based on the knowledge acquired from the IB and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) that she had “undesirable connections with some ISRO scientists and her activities were prejudicial to interest and security of India”.
Rasheeda was, thereafter, arrested on the directions of a then senior IB officer, Mathews, who had headed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the espionage case, has claimed.
The Supreme Court had on April 15 ordered that the report of a high-level committee on the position of erring police officers within the espionage case referring to Narayanan be given to the CBI and directed the company to conduct additional investigation on the difficulty.
The three-member committee, headed by former apex court docket choose Justice (retd) DK Jain, was appointed by the highest court docket in 2018 after acquitting Narayanan within the case. The Supreme Court had additionally directed the Kerala authorities to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation for compelling Narayanan to bear “immense humiliation”.
The espionage case, which had hit the headlines then, pertained to allegations of switch of sure confidential paperwork on India’s area programme to overseas nations by two scientists and 4 others, together with two Maldivian girls.
The CBI, in its probe again then, had held that the then high police officers in Kerala had been answerable for Narayanan’s Illegal arrest. The case additionally had a political fallout, with a piece in Congress concentrating on the then Chief Minister late Ok Karunakaran over the difficulty, that ultimately led to his resignation.
