Man framed in ISRO spy case dies without justice

S K Sharma, who was subjected to severe torture by the Kerala Police after being framed in the ISRO spy case along with Nambi Narayanan, has succumbed to cancer.

Sharma had recently harboured hopes of getting justice when he learnt that the Supreme Court had ordered compensation to Narayanan.

Branded as a spy and tortured, Sharma was later let off from the case in 1998. Though he was freed from jail, Sharma was isolated in society for the last 20 years.

However, he had been waging a legal battle for compensation during all these years.

In an interview to a national newspaper in November last year, Sharma said that the policemen had tortured him at a police station in Thiruvananthapuram over his non-

existent connection with Narayanan. Sharma’s daughter Monisha said that her father and Narayanan had no links at all. Both of them first met in jail after being arrested in connection with the ISRO spy case, she said.

“My father always wept when he spoke about the ISRO case,” said Monisha.

Dragged into the spy case

Sharma was trapped in the spy case after the Kerala Police found that he had enabled the admission for the child of a Male native in a school at Bengaluru on a request by D Chandrasekhar, the representative of the Russian space agency.

After Chandrasekhar was arrested, the police made repeated visits to Sharma’s house and factory. Sharma was charged with handing over ISRO’s documents to Pakistan. He

was summoned to the DRDO guest house and arrested. For two days, he was confined without food or medicine and was released on the condition that he would come to

Thiruvananthapuram and present himself before the investigating officer Siby Mathews.

Sharma reached the Kerala capital along with advocate Tomy Sebastian and was taken to the police station after the officers promised the advocate that no arrest would be made. Though he was supposed to be freed after being questioned for 30 minutes, Sharma was forced to sit on a bench at the police station for an entire night.

Subsequently, he was subjected to cruel torture. The police wanted to know his links with Nambi Narayanan and were not willing to take ‘no’ for an answer.

The torture

Sharma has described the treatment he received from the police in detail. “They started caning and kicking me. For half-an-hour, one policeman would torture me and when he became tired, another would take over. They accused me of being a spy. I cried out aloud why they were doing this to me,” he said.

“I did not know even a single word of Malayalam. But I finally learnt from the policemen that I had been arrested in connection with the ISRO spy case. I told them that I did not even know what the word ISRO stood for. I also said that I had no connection with even a single person attached to ISRO. But they were not convinced and continued the torture for three days,” explained Sharma.

On these days, the policemen did not allow Sharma to sit even once. He developed health issues and could not properly walk since then.

“I am still afraid,” said Sharma in the interview.

Later, CBI took over the probe, but Sharma spent 50 days in custody before being released on bail.

Family's travails

While Sharma was in jail, his wife came to meet him along with their daughter Monisha, who was aged two then. “She requested the jail authorities to allow me to give a chocolate to my daughter. My wife also pleaded with them to change my jail uniform during the meeting. Finally, they gave me permission to wear pants and shirt for some time,” recalled Sharma.

“When I gave Monisha the chocolate, all of us were crying,” he added.

After being freed from jail, the society isolated the family. “My daughters were expelled from school. They were wrongly accused of being spies and betraying the country. Even the teachers did not show sympathy and engaged in cruel taunts,” said Sharma.

In the club too, Sharma faced ridicule. “My acquaintances began to move away whenever I went to the club and I decided not to go there to spare them the mental agony,” said Sharma.