Kerala Government today informed the High Court that the decision to drop further action on the CBI report in the ISRO espionage case was taken by it after considering the entire aspect of the case.
The affidavit filed by Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan pointed out that the government was not bound to act on the CBI report by an officer who is not the part of the investigation team.
The Special Investigation team headed by Dr Siby Mathews had taken over investigation of the case on November 16 1994.
Former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan was arrested on November 30 that year on the day the report was submitted to the DGP, requesting that the investigation be entrusted to CBI.
The affidavit also said though the Apex Court had quashed the notification withdrawing consent to CBI, it did not mean that government was satisfied by the closure report submitted by the agency.
The affidavit was filed in a writ plea by Nambi Narayanan, who seeking to quash the Government Order deciding not to take any action against Siby Mathews and officials of SIT, constituted by Kerala Police in the ISRO espionage case.
Narayanan had approached the High Court challenging the government order of June 29, 2011 dropping action against investigating officers of Kerala police -- Sibi Mathews and two former SPs K K Joshua and Vijayan. He had also sought initiation of criminal and disciplinary action against the three officers.
Charges of espionage at ISRO had surfaced with the arrest of Maldivian national Mariam Rasheeda in Thiruvananthapuram in Oct 1994. Another Maldivian woman Fausia Hassan, a former ISRO scientist and two Bangalore based businessman were the other accused besides Narayanan in the case.
The case was later handed over to CBI which had filed the final report on April 30, 1996 as 'not proved and false'. The closure report was accepted by CJM Ernakulam and all the accused were discharged on May 2, 1996.
