A district court in Thiruvananthapuram has granted anticipatory bail to retired Director General of Police Siby Mathews in a “police frame-up” that arguably resulted in the infamous “ISRO spy scandal” case in 1994.
Last month, the Central Bureu of Investigation (CBI) had indicted Mr. Mathews for the alleged wrongful arrest, custodial torture, and unjustified incarceration of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan and others in the case. Mr. Mathews had headed the Special Investigation Team.
The CBI had also arraigned subordinates of Mr. Mathews, K. K. Joshua, S. Vijayan, and Thampi S. Durgadutt, for the “flawed prosecution”. It also named the then Deputy Director, Intelligence Bureau, R.B. Sreekumar, a suspect.
HC order
The Kerala High Court on Friday extended till July 1 its interim order directing the CBI not to arrest P.S. Jayaprakash, former Intelligence officer and an accused in the case.
Meanwhile, Mr. Narayanan filed a petition taking objection to the bail plea of the former Intelligence officer and seeking to implead him in the petition.
According to Mr. Jayaprakash, he was arraigned as 11th accused in the case. He was part of the team which assisted the State police in their investigation. However, he never took part in the interrogation or arrest of Mr. Narayanan. He was made as accused only due to some extraneous reasons.
