The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned a hearing on the CBI appeal against anticipatory bail granted to accused persons in the ISRO frame-up case to January next year.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar posted the case after the Christmas vacations. The case may likely be listed on January 3.
The adjournment was granted after the court was informed that one of the senior lawyers appearing in the case was unwell. Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, for the CBI, did not object to the rescheduling of the hearing.
The CBI, in an earlier hearing, had argued that there may be a “larger conspiracy involving foreign powers” in the ISRO frame-up case, which stalled the technology to develop the cryogenic engine by decades.
The court had issued notice to former police and Intelligence Bureau officials, who were granted the bail, on November 22.
The case was listed then on November 29, but was adjourned as Mr. Raju had a personal difficulty on that day.
The CBI has challenged the bail granted at the “threshold” of the investigation.
“The frame-up led to the arrest of scientists. The technology for the cryogenic engine was deliberately stalled for at least two decades... May be a larger conspiracy involving foreign powers... Grant of anticipatory bail at the threshold may harm the investigation,” Mr. Raju had submitted.
The High Court had granted anticipatory bail to P.S. Jayaprakash, Thampi S. Durga Dutt, Vijayan and R.B Sreekumar.
It had held that the accused “should not be made to face a similar situation of being forced to undergo the ignominy of being incarcerated in the prison for interrogation at this old age after their retirement for an incident that took place a quarter of the century ago.”
The High Court had noted that there was no “indication or material, apart from the rhetoric that a foreign power has a hand in persuading the petitioners,” to implicate the ISRO scientists in the case.
It had said that there was “not even a scintilla of evidence regarding the petitioners being influenced by any foreign power so as to induce them to hatch a conspiracy to falsely implicate the scientists” with the intention to stall the activities of the ISRO regarding the development of cryogenic engine. Unless there are specific materials regarding their involvement, prima facie, it cannot be said that the officials were acting against the interest of the country, the court had noted.
The CBI had arraigned 18 people, including the petitioners, as accused in the ISRO frame-up case after a Supreme Court-appointed Justice D.K. Jain Committee found fault with them for booking cases against the scientists.
The committee also found that some of the accused were involved in the deliberate leaking of the information to the media and press to create a narrative implicating the scientists and to arrest them without any material on record to show their involvement in the espionage.
These incidents and the consequent torture of Dr. Nambi Narayanan and K. Chandrasekharan in police custody required a detailed investigation, the committee had indicated.
