A senior Congress leader has approached the Kerala High Court to order a probe into the infamous Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spy case of 1994 which spoiled the careers of two brilliant space scientists of the country. The spy case also derailed the cryogenic engine development programme of India which would have helped the nation to emerge as a space super power.
KK Ramachandran, a six-term MlA and two-term Minister in Kerala, has approached the Kerala High Court with a request to order a probe into the conspiracy behind the ISRO spy scandal, the role of US and the Intelligence Bureau in subverting the country's space research programme. “Even the Supreme Court ruled that the ISRO spy case was nothing but a case foisted with ulterior motives. Though all the accused including Nambi Narayanan and D Sasikumar, the leading scientists behind the cryogenic engine research programme, were found to be innocent and discharged from the case by the apex court, the public is yet to know the reason behind such a cooked up case. A thorough probe would bring out the facts behind the ISRO spy case,” Ramachandran told The Pioneer.
He said it was as an atonement he filed the request. “K Karunakaran, the then Chief Minister of Kerala, had to resign following the spy scandal since the name of a police officer close to him too figured in the list of accused. Karunakaran died a broken man because of this blot. I want to fight for his name,” said Ramachandran.
Nambi Narayanan, Sasi Kumar, the two ISRO scientists, and Mariam Rasheeda and Fauziya Hassan, two Maldivian women, were arrested and tortured by a team of Kerala Police and the Intelligence Bureau officials. Nambi Narayanan and Sasi Kumar, the main brains behind the development of indigenous cryogenic engines for powering the heavy lift Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicles, had to quit ISRO because of this false case. “The timing of the scandal was very important. The United States had threatened Russia which had agreed to provide cryogenic engine technology to India. The USA never wanted India to develop its own cryogenic engine as it would have posed a major challenge to them in the $300 billion global launch business market,” said PS Sreedharan Pillai, lawyer representing Ramachandran.
Pillai was the standing counsel for the Union Government during 1998 to 2004 and had represented the CBI in many landmark cases.
Interestingly, the role of RB Sreekumar, a former Gujarat policeman waging a countrywide campaign against Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, too will come under the scanner once the case is re-opened. Scientists as well as human right activists feel Sreekumar was hand in glove with the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA in sabotaging the cryogenic engine development programme. Sreekumar was on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau at Thiruvananthapuram and had a major role in investigating the case.
Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, who was also holding the department of space, had told the Rajya Sabha on August 18, 1993 that it was USA which played spoilsport in India developing the indigenous cryogenic engine.
“Rattan Sehgal, an additional director in the IB, was found to be a mole of the CIA. He was fired from the IB when it was found that he was passing on all sensitive information to the CIA. This includes the move by the 13-day long NDA Government to go ahead with nuclear tests. Sehgal and Sreekumar had probed the ISRO spy case in 1994 for the IB. Both of them had physically and mentally tortured Narayanan and Sasikumar to make them confess that they had handed over the cryogenic technology to the Maldivian women who were alleged to be ISI agents,” said Pillai.
Russia in Space, A Failed Frontier, a book authored by British-born Brian Harvey, had included a detailed account of the ISRO spy case. The book describes how the CIA sabotaged the Indian cryogenic engine programme.
“Neither the Kerala Police, nor the IB are authorised to file cases under the Official Secret Act. Moreover, India has not perfected the cryogenic technology at the time when cases were filed against the scientists,” said Ramachandran.
Scientists in ISRO, especially at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, recollected how Sreekumar, who was one of the deputies to Rattan Sehgal unleashed a reign of terror in the ISRO campus.