Headlines
Kerala HC nixes action in false ISRO spy case
Kochi/Thiruvananthapuram, March 4
The Kerala
High Court on Wednesday dismissed a single-bench order directing the
state government to take action against three police officers, now
retired, who had falsely implicated and arrested ISRO official S. Nambi
Narayanan in a non-existent espionage case.
Narayanan said he will now move the Supreme Court.
"This
is not a problem at all. I will now approach the Supreme Court. The
Kerala High Court division bench verdict was unexpected. I see this as a
temporary setback only as I am confident that ultimately the truth will
triumph," Narayanan told reporters in the capital city soon after the
verdict came from Kochi.
The three police officers are Siby
Mathews, K.K. Joshua and S. Vijayan. Narayanan had sought action against
them for falsely implicating him in the case.
After the
single-bench verdict last year quashing the state government's order to
drop charges against the trio, the Kerala government decided against an
appeal.
Thereafter, Mathews, presently the state chief
information commissioner, approached the division bench and got a
favourable verdict on Wednesday.
The Oommen Chandy government in
2011 had decided against taking action against the three police
officers. Narayanan had moved the court against the decision and got
this quashed.
The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when Narayanan,
along with another top ISRO official, two Maldivian women and a
businessman was arrested on espionage charges.
The CBI cleared him in 1995 and since then he has been fighting a legal battle against the three police officers.