[ISRO Conspiracy] Kerala High Court grants anticipatory bail to four accused

The Kerala High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to four persons accused for their alleged involvement in the ISRO conspiracy case..Single-judge Justice Ashok Menon granted relief to RB Sreekumar, PS Jayaprakash, Thampi S Durga Dutt and Vijayan who were police/ Intelligence Bureau officers at the time of the arrest and subsequent alleged police frame up of ISRO Scientist Nambi Narayanan and others. .Additional Solicitor General, Senior Advocate SV Raju, who had appeared for the CBI had opposed the bail applications of the accused arguing that since the persons concerned are former law enforcement officers, they would not cooperate fully with the probe and might pressurise witnesses and suppress material evidence.He emphasised that this is a case which affects national security and even at this nascent stage of the investigation, the CBI suspects that this was a conspiracy hatched against India by enemy nations or organisations, perhaps even Pakistan and ISIS.Further, he contended that the alleged actions of the accused in the frame-up of Narayanan had irreversibly hampered the development of cryogenic technology in the country which was in its infancy at the time..He pointed out that on July 26, 2021, Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna of the Supreme Court had ordered that after registration of FIR, investigating agency, in this case the CBI, must collect evidence on its own and not "merely" rely on the report Justice DK Jain Committee which had earlier looked into the alleged police cover-up.Therefore, he opposed the contention of the petitioners that the CBI cannot rely on the Jain Committee report at all cannot be maintained as it is clear that the CBI is free to proceed using the report as an initial or additional basis, if not the sole basis. .RB Sreekumar was represented by Senior Advocate S Sreekumar, PS Jayaprakash by Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, and Vijayan and Thampi S Durga Dutt by Advocate Sasthamangalam Ajithkumar.On behalf of all the petitioners, it was argued by their counsel that there has been 25 years since the events of this case transpired, the petitioners are now retired and aged, and therefore they do not need to be subjected to custodial interrogation. Further, they said that all the charges alleged against them are bailable except for one under Section 365 IPC (kidnapping or abduction with intent to secretly and wrongfully to confine person)It was submitted that the petitioners are willing to cooperate with the investigation in any manner..They also contended that the allegation of the CBI that there was some intervention by foreign agencies to purposefully hamper the development of cryogenic technology has never been mentioned in the last 25 years. The claim that even ISIS might be involved is even more suspicious they said, and appears to have been made to sensationalise the case in the media and to irreversibly tarnish the image of the petitioners. .Nambi Narayanan, through Advocate C Unnikrishnan, and D Sasikumaran through Advocate Prasad Gandhi, applied to be impleaded themselves as the de-facto complainants in all three cases. .Unnikrishnan contended that the delay in the case can be attributed to the fact the petitioners, who were the law enforcement officers concerned, seem to have hidden the relevant files for several years. He said that this shows how powerful the petitioners are and asserted that the investigation would definitely find that the petitioners had tortured Narayanan , both physically and mentally, and then covered it up after the fact. He also supported the argument of the CBI that there was an attempt to throw a spanner in the work of developing cryogenic technology. .Justice Menon, had in July, granted interim anticipatory bail to Jayaprakash, Vijayan and Dutt. Justice K Haripal had granted the same relief to Sreekumar as well. .[ISRO Conspiracy Case] Kerala High Court grants interim anticipatory bail to three accused .In September 2018, the Supreme Court had held that the prosecution initiated by the Kerala police against Narayanan in the mid 1990s in the ISRO espionage case was malicious and ordered a compensation of Rs. 50 lakh to Narayanan..[BREAKING] Supreme Court orders CBI probe into wrongful arrest of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan .The Court then constituted a three-member panel under retired judge, Justice DK Jain to identify those responsible for the alleged conspiracy and subsequently the Central government had requested the Court to take cognisance of the report submitted by the Jain committee.Consequently, the Supreme Court forwarded the report to the CBI as it felt that the findings of the committee deserved thorough investigation.The CBI then opened a criminal enquiry against several former law enforcement officials allegedly involved in the police frame-up.The CBI had after examining the Jain panel report, filed a First Information Report (FIR) marked as classified in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram in July this year..The offences alleged in the new FIRs against several of the accused are under the following Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC):167 - Public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury;218 - Public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment;330 - Voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession;323 - Voluntarily causing hurt;195 - Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of offence punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment;348 - Wrongful confinement to extort confession;365 - Kidnapping or abduction with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person;477A - Falsification of accounts;506 - Criminal Intimidation;120B - Criminal Conspiracy..Story to be updated with order.