NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the involvement of three Kerala police officers in framing Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 espionage case.
The Isro scientist had been acquitted and was eventually awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation by the top court.
The SC bench, headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar, directed the acting CBI Director to take charge of the case and treat the inquiry report given Justice D K Jain panel as a preliminary report for further investigation.
On April 5, the Centre moved the top court seeking urgent hearing and consideration of the panel's report terming it as a "national issue".
The espionage case, which had hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women. The scientist was arrested during the Congress regime in Kerala.
Narayanan had approached the apex court against a Kerala high court judgement that said no action needed to be taken against former DGP Siby Mathews, who was then heading the SIT probe team, and two retired superintendents of police K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.
The apex court had appointed the panel on September 14, 2018 while directing the Kerala government to cough up Rs 50 lakh compensation for compelling Narayanan to undergo "immense humiliation".