ISRO espionage case: Kerala HC dismisses plea seeking investigation against Nambi Narayanan

The Kerala High Court dismissed the plea of S Vijayan, the former police officer, who is an accused in the conspiracy case linked to the 1994 ISRO espionage case which sought an investigation into the allegations against Nambi Narayanan, who was the former ISRO scientist who had transferred large tracts of land worth crores to the investigating officials of CBI at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

On July 16 this year, Vijayan also submitted documents related to the land transfer to the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. He reiterated this in the last hearing to the Kerala High Court's Single Bench comprises Justice Narayana Pisharadi R.

He told this to the High Court via his counsel that, "Nambi Narayanan, his son Sankara Kumar and relative Paul Swamy made the dealings. The bribes helped Narayanan to be acquitted by the CBI in the spy case. The documents submitted in the trial court earlier were sufficient for the trial court to order an investigation under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Nambi Narayanan and the officials."

The court said that Vijayan can approach the trial court with all documents. Earlier in July, S Vijayan placed documents before the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate Court showing land transactions in 2004 and 2008 of nearly a hundred acres. Later the trial Court dismissed it.

According to the documents submitted at that time in the trial court, "Anjali Srivastava, wife of former DGP Raman Srivastava and CBI former joint director Rajendra Natha Kaul, received land in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu in 2004. Kaul's close relative got 1 acre. Elder sister and brother-in-law of former DYSP Harivalsan, who initiated internal inquiry into the spy case, got 22 acres of land. A West Bengal politician received 10.54 acres and an officer in the general administration department got 15.09 acres. A Benami of former CBI DIG Madhusoodanan Nair got another 18.88 acres of land."

S Vijayan, who was the special branch inspector is the first accused in the conspiracy case linked to the 1994 ISRO Espionage Case.

( With inputs from ANI )