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Ritu Sarin
NEW DELHI, JAN 2: Senior ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan today slapped a Rs 1 crore suit against the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Kerala police officials in a Kerala court for the ``mental and physical agony'' he suffered while he was falsely implicated in the 1994 spy scandal.
In his 25-page suit, the scientist, now serving as Director of ISRO's Advanced Technology and Planning Department in Bangalore, demands compensation for the ``malicious prosecution'' and the injuries caused to him by 12 listed respondents. The respondents include two IB officials, six senior police officers as well as the Secretary in the Home Department in Thiruvananthapuram. The Union Government and the Kerala Government have also been made respondents in the case.
Nambi Narayanan told The Indian Express he would now seek permission from the Union Government for filing a criminal suit against the errant intelligence and police officials.
He said despite Supreme Court's favourable verdict of April 1998, he was compelled to filethe suit because officials who had tortured him were far from conceding their guilt.``These people are still active and feel they can get away with what they have done. There has been no punishment forthcoming and therefore the suit,'' he said.
Nambi Narayanan, who consulted several lawyers before filing his suit, has sought damages ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 12 lakh on 10 counts. They include registration of a false case, illegal detention for 50 days, inflicting mental and physical torture, loss of reputation, mental agony caused to family and the loss of a promotion at ISRO.
Nambi Narayanan said the espionage case filed against him and three others in 1994 was ``malicious, without jurisdiction or sanction.''
He alleged that once Kerala police officials handed him over for interrogation to IB officials, it was evident they wanted him to make false accusations against top bosses at ISRO.
``The 6th respondent (Sibi Mathew, the then Inspector-General of Police) as well as IB officials acted as agentsof certain persons who wanted to tarnish the image of ISRO in space work... as well as make personal gains,'' the petition says.
Describing the ``wanton and cruel'' torture he was made to suffer, Nambi Narayanan said he is willing to identify the officials who had assaulted him and branded him a ``traitor''.
He alleged that two IB officials had asked him to implicate A E Muthunanakom, his boss and then Director of the Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC).
The IB officials, he said in his petition, then said they would make Muthunanakom implicate former ISRO chief Prof U R Rao and even assured him he would not be harassed if he cooperated.
But when he refused to comply, Nambi Narayanan said, he was tortured by being forced to stand for 36 hours and answer ``immaterial and filthy'' questions. Unable to bear it, he collapsed and had to be hospitalised, he said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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