Kerala HC nixes action in false ISRO spy case

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed a single-bench order directing the state government to take action against three police officers, now retired, who had falsely implicated and arrested ISRO official S. Nambi Narayanan in a non-existent espionage case.

Narayanan said he will now move the Supreme Court.

"This is not a problem at all. I will now approach the Supreme Court. The Kerala High Court division bench verdict was unexpected. I see this as a temporary setback only as I am confident that ultimately the truth will triumph," Narayanan told reporters in the capital city soon after the verdict came from Kochi.

The three police officers are Siby Mathews, K.K. Joshua and S. Vijayan. Narayanan had sought action against them for falsely implicating him in the case.

After the single-bench verdict last year quashing the state government's order to drop charges against the trio, the Kerala government decided against an appeal.

Thereafter, Mathews, presently the state chief information commissioner, approached the division bench and got a favourable verdict on Wednesday.

The Oommen Chandy government in 2011 had decided against taking action against the three police officers. Narayanan had moved the court against the decision and got this quashed.

The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when Narayanan, along with another top ISRO official, two Maldivian women and a businessman was arrested on espionage charges.

The CBI cleared him in 1995 and since then he has been fighting a legal battle against the three police officers.