A gross injustice has been rectified, but only partially

Rahul Singh

A recent news item did not get the prominence it deserved. It pertains to perhaps the most sensational case of alleged espionage, involving India’s ambitious space programme, in which the shadowy American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also might have had a hand.

The news item stated that the Kerala Government had, “in principle”, decided to pay Rs1.3 crore compensation to former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was falsely implicated in the 1994 ‘ISRO spy case’, as it was then popularly called. This amount was for settling the case filed by Narayanan against the state government, asking for higher damages for his illegal arrest and harassment. Earlier, Rs50 lakh had been given to him by the government following a Supreme Court order. Clearly, he did not think this was enough. Another Rs10 lakh compensation had also been recommended by the National Human Rights Commission, which too was paid to Narayanan, though many years later. That adds up to a total compensation of almost Rs2 crore, possibly making it the highest amount ever given in India to an individual for having been falsely framed and arrested.

The background to the ISRO spy case is fascinating and instructive. As ISRO is based in what was then called Trivandrum, much of what transpired centres around Kerala. It is a sordid story of political intrigue, outright lies, and sleaze. It is also a damning indictment of the Kerala Police, the IB (Intelligence Bureau, which displayed little intelligence in this particular case), the state’s political leadership, and the local press. All disgraced themselves. Sadly, none of them has been punished, even though names of the guilty officers from the IB and Kerala Police have been publicly revealed.

Narayanan and another scientist, who was arrested, were brutally beaten up and tortured by the IB and forced to confess to the false charges. Yes, justice of a sort has been delivered to Nambi Narayanan. But is even Rs2 crore sufficient for ruining a top scientist’s career, incarcerating him in jail for two months, almost driving him to suicide, and traumatising his wife so much that she became unhinged? And what about the setback to India’s space and rocket programme?

It all began with the arrival in late 1994 of two young women, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauziya Hassan, from the Maldives. At Trivandrum airport, a Customs officer extracted $100 from Mariam. She created a scene and a co-passenger came to her rescue and made the officer return the money. The co-passenger was K Chandrasekhar, a Bangalore-based representative of Russia’s space agency, Glavkosmos. A thankful Mariam told him that she had come to Kerala to consult a doctor for her heart problem and also seek admission to a good school for her and her friend Fauziya’s daughter. Chandrasekhar promised to help her and put her on to the doctor wife of Sasikumaran, who happened to be a top ISRO scientist, like Narayanan. Later, Mariam met Sasikumaran too.

The rather convoluted plot is all there in Narayanan’s book (co-authored with journalist Arun Ram), Ready to Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case. Somehow, the irresponsible local press sensationalised it by falsely accusing the two scientists of being honey-trapped by the two Maldivian women to hand over secret drawings and documents pertaining to ISRO’s cryogenic rocket programme to Pakistan!

This was at a time when the US and Russia were competing for mastery in sending satellites into space, using rockets. Surprisingly, India, thanks to far-sighted people like the late Vikram Sarabhai, was also in the mix. And the two leading Indian scientists in the field were none other than Narayanan and Sasikumaran. The case provided an ideal opportunity for Americans to sabotage India’s space programme, which was beginning to rival that of the US. Successful Indian rockets could have sent satellites into space for a fraction of the cost that America was charging. Indian rockets can do that now but it is said that by bringing Narayanan and Sasikumaran under a cloud and virtually ending their careers, the Indian rocket programme was put back by at least 15 years. When you consider that the business of launching satellites is worth an astounding $300 billion, you can understand that a country could go to great lengths, even resort to “dirty tricks”, to get a major share of that bounty.

So, did the CIA help in planting the false ‘spy case’ and did the press in Kerala, the IB and the police fall for it?

The CIA was certainly very active in India those days. The CIA chief in Delhi and his deputy were given marching orders by New Delhi (Washington retaliated by doing the same to two RAW operatives in the US). However, nothing more happened. Though Sasikumaran has apparently decided to put the case behind him and quietly retire without taking any legal action, Narayanan has vowed to go after those who tortured and made his life miserable and bring them to justice. I fervently hope he succeeds.

A message should go out that the police and IB officers who act unprofessionally, to the extent of torturing suspects, should be punished. The two entirely innocent Maldivian women, who were humiliated and had to spend a long time in jail, also plan to sue. I hope they too succeed. But what about Kerala’s leading politicians, K Karunakaran, AK Antony and Oommen Chandy, who used the ‘spy case’ to settle scores with each other, forgetting the larger interest of the nation? Shouldn’t they also be held to account?

— The writer is a veteran journalist