Court to hear ex-ISRO scientist's defamation plea on Feb 13

A Delhi court today fixed February 13 for hearing a criminal defamation complaint filed by a former scientist of ISRO, who was acquitted in a 1994 espionage case, against former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar for allegedly defaming him by making "false statements".
Retired scientist Nambi Narayanan's complaint came up for hearing before Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari and the court fixed his plea for February 13.
In his petition, Narayanan has claimed that Sreekumar had made false statements against him to tarnish his image.
Sreekumar had last year filed a similar complaint against Narayanan, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Rajnath Singh and party's spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi over the alleged attacks on him in the 1994 ISRO spying case.

Sreekumar's plea is fixed for hearing tomorrow before Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain.
In his plea, Narayanan has alleged Sreekumar had given "vexatious statements" against him during a debate on a news channel in November last year and the former IPS officer had also filed a "politically motivated, false" criminal defamation complaint against him and others before a court here.

Earlier, Narayanan had written a letter to the Union Home Secretary demanding action against Sreekumar for "falsely" dragging him in the case and threatened to take legal action against the Union Home Ministry if his demand was not met.
In his letter, Narayanan claimed that Sreekumar, who was then serving as Deputy Director in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, Thiruvananthapuram, and was in-charge of the probe in the espionage case, had allegedly falsely implicated him in the case.

Narayanan had alleged that he was the victim of the false case fabricated by Sreekumar and others in the Intelligence Bureau but no action has been taken against the former police officer despite CBI reporting serious illegalities and improprieties to the Government of India.