TEESTA’S COMRADE SREEKUMAR OR ISRO SCIENTIST: WHO IS REAL TRAITOR?

 By Milind Arolkar

PART 1

 (Read Part 2)

The issue of scientist Dr. Nambi Narayanan pointing a fingure at former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar is neither a case of mere allegations between the two persons, nor it should be seen as a case of political rivalry. The documents and timeline of the whole episode suggests various angles linked to this rejuvenated case known as “ISRO Spy case 1994” which has unearthed recently by the outburst of the victim Dr. Nambi Narayanan.

Dr. S. Nambi Narayanan, a former prominent scientist of India's space agency ISRO, was arrested on espionage charges in 1994, on Thursday said he wants punishment for the Intelligence Bureau official and former Gujarat director general of police (DGP) R.B. Sreekumar who fabricated the case against him and the mastermind behind the conspiracy branding Narayanan as a traitor.

Who is Dr. Nambi Narayanan?
Nambi Narayan is an Indian scientist of repute. Narayanan started his career in ISRO in 1966 when Vikram Sarabhai was heading the organization. Vikram Sarabhai took the initiative to send him to Princeton University in America for a Ph.D.

Despite having attractive offers from reputed institutions including NASA after his Ph.D., he came back to ISRO. Narayanan introduced the Liquid Fuel Rocket technology in India in the early 1970s when A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s team was working on Solid Motors. He was encouraged by the then ISRO Chairman Satish Dhawan and his successor U.R. Rao.

He later went to France to develop a technology which led to the development of a Liquid Fuel Rocket Engine. It was called the Vikas Engine which later became the foundation of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that took Chandrayan-1 to the moon in 2008. Nambi Narayanan was one of the top scientists of India at that point of time.

Noticeable is the fact that Dr. Nambi began his scientific career in India's space research programme under Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam who was working on the solid propulsion system in ISRO. The arrest of Dr. Nambi Narayanan on false charges relegated our space program by three years and crushed the morale of ISRO scientists.

However, the fall-out of the ISRO spy case led to a brilliant Rocket scientist losing his entire career and in the process, the nation suffered immensely.

Teesta’s comrade Sreekumar
Sreekumar is the same known face which is seen accompanying social activist Teesta Setalvad who is facing wrath of her all ex-aides and Muslims in Gujarat for her acts of exploiting the 2002 Gujarat riots victims and using their plight for her personal and political gains. Current media darling Sreekumar is mainly known for the allegations he made against the Government of Gujarat and its Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The tale of ruining a life and ruining India’s space programme
Back in 1994, Sreekumar along with the then DIG Siby Mathews, was enthusiastic in mercilessly torturing and shamefully humiliating Dr. Nambi Narayanan, who was working with ISRO on the liquid propulsion system — the technology was successfully used in many satellite missions. Narayanan, along with six others, including his ISRO colleague D Sasikumar, was arrested on November 30, 1994 on charges of espionage and for selling defense secrets to two Maldivian women, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan.

On 30 November 1994, a team of policemen barged into the house of Dr Nambi Narayanan, and said they were taking him into custody. As he got into the police van, Narayanan looked back and saw his wife collapsing on the floor. He couldn’t check on her because he was forced into the vehicle. He thought he was being taken to a police station, but it was to a government guesthouse. There, in a dark room, surrounded by four or five policemen, the interrogation began. For every answer he gave, he was beaten up badly which continued for three days.

The reason given that time was that Nambi Narayanan was suspected as a part of an espionage ring, someone who had sold India’s rocket technology to enemies for profit.

Dr. Nambi proved innocent
In December 1995 Kerala High Court allowed the reinvestigation, which CBI challenged in the Apex Court. Supreme Court quashed the Kerala Government’s order to reinvestigate saying the move was against good governance. All accused were freed of the charges. Meanwhile Hassan and Rasheeda were released from jail.

The charges against Nambi were dismissed by the CBI in 1996, and the Supreme Court declared him not guilty in 1998. By 1999 it was clear that ISRO spy case was a fabricated case done at the behest of individuals and CIA’s hand behind defaming Indian scientists in such a worst manner was discussed to malign the success of ISRO and India.

When, in the year 2001 National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered an interim compensation of Rs. 10 lakh for Dr Nambi Narayanan who sought Rs. 1 crore (10 million) as damages, Kerala Government got a stay on NHRC’s order. State government challenged the award of compensation ordered by the NHRC in 2001 before the High Court. In September 2012, after 11 years Division Bench of the High Court vacated the stay and asked the Government to pay interim relief to Nambi Narayanan within three weeks which the Kerala government has to pay without any other argument.

Even after Dr. Nambi Narayanan was proved totally innocent, no one except himself questioned the motives and inhuman deeds of Sreekumar and his then IB collegues. Question remains that if Nambi Narayanan has been proved innocent, then who is guilty? Let’s find out.

Nambi’s charges: unanswered and un-probed
While his case was progressing in Kerala High Court, Dr. Nambi Narayanan made a sensational claim that his arrest was actually a part of an US agenda accomplished by the CIA, in connivance with the officials of the IB, Siby Mathew and others.

He pointed out that he did not earlier raise the allegation that his arrest was a part of because he realized the agenda only later, when he himself investigated the entire episode. Nambi said that he realized the fact that Rattan Sehgal, the then Counter Intelligence Chief of IB, who was also associated with the ISRO case, was caught red-handed by the then IB Chief Arun Bhagath. Rattan was accused of having worked for the CIA and this finally led to his unceremonious exit from the IB in November 1996.

Nambi Narayanan submitted before the Kerala High Court that the police officials, who had initially probed the espionage case, had planned the arrest of all persons working for the development of Cryogenic engine technology to demoralize the agency and to stall its developmental activities in the specialized area.

Nambi submitted that if indiscriminate arrests had not been made a cryogenic engine could have been developed in the year 2000.

Narayanan, in a petition to the National Human Rights Commission, alleged that false news had been leaked to the press primarily by Mathew. "While many newspapers quoted Mathew as the source of information, Time magazine too in its December 26, 1994 issue quoted Mathew," he said.
Politics has a role to play

In November 1994, the then Congress (UDF) government in Kerala formed a special probe team for the “ISRO Spy case” headed by DIG Siby Mathews. A week after another ISRO scientist D. Sasikumaran was arrested from Ahmedabad, where he was posted. In the connection of this case, Police arrested a Bangalore based labor contractor S.K. Sharma.

In December 1994, the case was handed over to CBI. The official of central investigation agency questioned senior IPS official Raman Srivastava. The then IG of Police of Kerala State, Raman Srivasatava and his family was stoned outside Guruvayur temple by an irate mob, who shouted that they were traitors. The Kerala media was busy spreading lies that Srivastava was an accomplice of Nambinarayanan in selling our ISRO secrets.

In March 1995 K. Karunakaran was forced to quit as Chief Minister over his refusal to suspend Srivastava. Two months later CBI submitted closure report in a special court in Kochi.

In June, Congress (UDF) lost the elections assembly elections new CPM-led LDF Government granted the consent given to CBI to probe the case and decided on a reinvestigation by the State Police.

PART 1 CONCLUDES…