Chennai: The Kerala government finally handed over a compensation of Rs 1.3 crore to former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was falsely accused and arrested in an espionage case, as per the directive of the Supreme Court.
The case relates to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents and secrets of the county’s cryogenic engine technology to enemy countries. When the espionage case was unearthed, Nambi Narayanan was in-charge of the cryogenic division.
A case was filed by Narayanan (79) in the sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram after the Supreme Court in 2018 ordered that his arrest in the case was “unnecessary and he was implicated” and granted him an interim relief of Rs 50 lakh. The court had also observed that Narayanan deserved more and he could approach a lower court for proper compensation. Earlier, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had also ordered a relief Rs 10 lakh to him.
According to the local media report, the Cabinet gave in-principle approval to hand over the compensation and settle the case. Nambi was unlawfully arrested and was accused of leaking vital defence secrets to two alleged Maldivian intelligence officers in 1994. Last year, the Modi government conferred him with Padma Bhushan. Currently, actor Madhavan is making a biopic on Narayanan.