india

Updated: Feb 22, 2017 13:21 IST

Former Isro scientist S Nambi Narayanan was instrumental in designing the system used in Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan and PSLV that launched 104 satellites in one go last week.

But the 75-year-old, who has a spying case against him, is still fighting to get justice.

Narayanan was in the Supreme Court to attend the hearing of his petition, seeking action against those who allegedly foisted a false case against him.

“There, they are using the same system that I worked upon and developed. But here, I am still fighting to get justice. I have wasted my 25 years,” Narayanan said immediately after the hearing in his case ended. The court fixed February 23 to hear his petition.

Narayanan’s career was ruined after the 1994 Isro spying scandal made headlines. He was given a clean chit after a CBI probe held that the Kerala police had fabricated the case.

The scientist was arrested after the Kerala police nabbed Mariam Rasheeda — a Maldivian woman — on October 20, 1994. Though she was arrested for overstaying in India, police later accused her of being involved in a sex-spy scandal.

It was alleged that Rasheeda was the intermediary between the organisation and two more women. She was accused of passing on Isro’s cryogenic programme secrets to the women, who in turn supplied the same to Russia and Pakistan’s ISI.

Two years later, the CBI cleared all the accused, who were discharged in May 1996. CBI also filed a closure report before the court. But a change in the government re-opened the probe. The earlier consent given by the state to the CBI to investigate the case was withdrawn and the Kerala police was asked to hold a fresh inquiry.

In 1998, the Supreme Court quashed the state government’s decision. On Narayanan’s petition, the Kerala high court, in September 2012, ordered the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim relief to the scientist. Later, in October 2014, action was ordered against the errant police officials.

However, a division bench reversed the order in March 2015, which Narayanan has challenged before the Supreme Court. His grievance is that despite the CBI probe indicting the police officers, the state has not taken any action against them.