Years after the ISRO espionage case had seemingly died down, the embers, left in its wake, seems to burn bright, as Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram will become the setting for the probe by the Jain Commission. The Supreme Court had set up the committee in 2018, following the order in a case filed by former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan against the investigating officers of the 1994 case. The apex court put in charge former SC Justice DK Jain as committee chairman.
The committee will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram, at the Secretariat on December 14 and 15. The Union Home Ministry had instructed the state government to provide necessary facilities for the commission’s functioning. Considering the sensitive function of the committee, the Centre has explicitly instructed the Kerala police chief to be in charge of providing the committee security. The state government will be providing the housing, transportation, office space, internet facilities and many more, under the recommendations made by the Supreme Court.
The committee will probe into the top officers — Siby Mathew, KK Joshua, and S Vijayan — who were in charge of the original case. Narayanan had filed a case against them for “cooking up espionage charges” against him. The original plea, filed with the Kerala High Court, was dismissed, and Narayanan had gone to the apex court. The apex court granted him compensation as well as a committee to probe into the actions of the police officers. The three-member committee also includes former additional Chief Secretary VS Senthil and retired IAS officer BK Prasad accompanying justice Jain to the state capital.
