MORE than seven years after their ordeal began and over three years after they were cleared of all charges by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Supreme Court, the victims of the infamous 'ISRO espionage case' may see the first trickle of compensation soon. On March 16, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs.10 lakhs to S. Nambinarayanan, a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as "immediate interim relief" for the mental and physical torture he had to undergo while in custody. The Commission has also directed the State government to report on the action taken against "delinquent officers" (of the Kerala Police and the Intelligence Bureau) who, it said, had committed "gr oss violation of human rights".
"If the 1998 Supreme Court verdict vindicated my stand, the NHRC order is a morale-booster. If the CBI and the courts earlier said I did not commit the crime, the Commission has now brought out that what others did to me was a crime," said an "extremely happy" Nambinarayanan.
After a CBI inquiry had found that "the allegations of espionage are not proved and have been found to be false" and a court had ordered the release of all the accused, including Nambinarayanan, the case dragged on and came to an end at the Supreme Court on April 28, 1998 (Frontline, May 9-22, 1998). The court indicted the Kerala government for its "mala fide exercise of power" in ordering a fresh police inquiry "with the avowed object of establishing that the accused are guilty, even afte r the investigating agency of its choice, the CBI, found that no case had been made out against them."
The NHRC has now said that it is "an unusual case of gross violation of human rights of a reputed scientist whose long and distinguished career in space research has been tarnished apart from the mental and physical torture he and his family were subject ed to by the Kerala Police."
Its order said that the statement by the doctor who had examined Nambinarayanan while in custody supported the complaint that he was subjected to physical and mental torture with a view to extorting a confession from him as suggested by the interrogators . It also said that the CBI's findings, duly supported by the Supreme Court, were sufficient to prove the gross violation of human rights by the public servants.
"Is it possible for them to give back what I have lost in my life? They have every right to suspect foul play and to see that the law is being adhered to, that no crime is committed, that justice is done. But the process of doing so should also be accord ing to the law," Nambinarayanan told Frontline. "The outcome only shows that no matter who the person is, the truth will come out in the end. It is only a matter of educating those who suffer that there are several avenues to get justice done. My belief in the Indian judicial system has only increased."
In a case he filed (as an indigent petitioner) in a Thiruvananthapuram sub-court in January 1999, Nambinarayanan claimed Rs.1 crore as damages for the "malicious prosecution" and the injuries caused to him by 12 listed respondents, including two I.B. off icials, six senior police officers, the State Home Secretary and the State and Union governments. In response, the State government filed a criminal complaint for defamation against Nambinarayanan (and the Bangalore-based businessman S. K. Sarma, who was also acquitted by the Supreme Court), claiming that the "allegations" made by them in their complaint to the courts were defamatory to the government and its officials.
Nambinarayanan is now Director, Advanced Technology and Planning, at the ISRO headquarters in Bangalore, and is to retire this year-end. He has finished writing a book ("soon to be published") on the "story behind" the case, based on his bitter experienc es. "There are people who are still sceptical, and those who continue to declare that I am guilty, even after the Supreme Court exonerated me. They may have been misguided initially. But at least now shouldn't they admit what they did was a mistake? Will they never understand the havoc they played with our lives?" Nambinarayanan asks.
R. KrishnakumarCOMMents
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