ISRO espionage case fabricated, reveals CBI chargesheet

Thiruvananthapuram: The chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case related to the alleged framing of space scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 ISRO espionage case has cited that the entire case was a conspiracy hatched by certain officials. The chargesheet was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram. 

According to the chargesheet, the facts and circumstances that emerged during the investigation of CBI have revealed that this is a clear case of abuse of law/authority right from the initial stage as Mariyam Rasheeda was detained illegally and framed with false overstaying case. False interrogation reports were used by SIT in successive arrests of victims. The accused persons Siby Mathews, KK Joshua, RB Sreekumar and PS Jayaprakash played an active role in conspiracy to create false documents, leading to illegal arrests, torture etc. S Vijayan was also involved in outraging the modesty of Mariyam Rasheeda. The charge sheet recommends S Vijayan, Siby Mathews, KK Joshua, RB Sreekumar and PS Jayaprakash for prosecution.

S Vijayan deliberately shared the news with media personnel to create a false narrative to implicate Mariyam Rasheeda and ISRO scientists and a false case under the Foreigner's Act was registered just to take her into custody by not returning her passport/travel documents thereby restraining her within the boundary of Indian territory. There is nothing in the statement of Mariyam Rasheeda which suggests that she admitted to indulging in any sort of espionage activities by way of taking out the secret documents of ISRO, which CBI has mentioned in the chargesheet.

According to the chargesheet, Habib Pillai, the then APP has denied giving any advice to Vijayan regarding the registration of the case against Mariyam Rasheeda. It says that even though the IB officials and Kerala police officials were fully aware that there was a lack of incriminating evidence about allegations of espionage and that the contents of interrogation reports were not well grounded, these reports were used by the special investigation team in connivance with IB officials for false implication and arrests.

The investigation conducted by CBI has revealed that S Vijayan played a very active role in the false implication of victims. The victims were physically and mentally tortured to extract a confession, the chargesheet noted.