Public apology for Ex-ISRO scientist

Politicians, activists and journalists on Sunday offered a public apology to former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist S Nambi Narayanan, who was falsely implicated in an espionage case in 1994. The case related to allegations of transfer of confidential documents on India’s space programme to foreign nations. It was initially probed by Kerala police and later by the CBI, which found that no espionage took place.

Earlier this month, the Kerala government had decided to pay `10 lakh as compensation to the former  ISRO scientist.

Twelve top officials of the CBI independently probed the spy case to make doubly sure that it indeed was a cooked up tale, said Nambi Narayanan on Sunday.

Addressing an event organised by the Samoohya Samrakshana Samithi to offer him a symbolic apology, Narayanan said that after the CBI probed the case and found it to be false, they were hesitant about submitting a report to their superior officers. So 12 senior officers, including agency director Vijayarama Rao, had come down. “They investigated the case independently.  And all 12 categorically stated that it was a false case,’’ he said.

Nambi Narayanan said his dream was the creation of an Asian space agency, a la European Space Agency. He also expressed hope that India would develop the cryogenic technology.

Writer Paul Zacharia, who took part in the event, demanded that the compensation to Narayanan be paid not from the treasury, but from the pockets of police officers who had erred. He also charged A K Antony, who became CM after K Karunakaran was forced to step down, of not doing enough to scotch the lies against Karunakaran and ISRO.