[ISRO Conspiracy] Kerala High Court grants interim anticipatory bail to former DGP of Gujarat, RB Sreekumar

The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted interim anticipatory bail to former Director General of Police of Gujarat, RB Sreekumar for his alleged involvement in the ISRO Espionage case of the 90's which led to the arrest and alleged custodial torture of scientist Nambi Narayanan and others. .Single-judge Justice K Haripal issued an interim order granting him protection from arrest until the next hearing of the case. The case has been tagged with connected bail applications filed by other police officers who were allegedly involved in the conspiracy..During the course of the hearing today, standing counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed the Kerala High Court that it suspects Pakistan’s involvement in the case while vehemently opposing the bail application, Times Now reported..Sreekumar was posted as the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Bureau at Thiruvananthapuram from 1992 to 1995 when the alleged conspiracy and cover-up leading to the arrest of Nambi Narayanan occurred.He had approached the Gujarat High Court last week seeking transit bail in the case filed by the CBI. During the hearing then, the court of Justice Vipul Pancholi had reportedly suggested to advocate MM Tirmizi, representing Sreekumar, to file an application for relief before the Kerala High Court..Earlier this month, single-judge of the Kerala High Court, Justice Ashok Menon, had granted interim anticipatory bail to three other accused in the case namely, PS Jayaprakash, Vijayan and Thampi S Durga Dutt..[ISRO Conspiracy Case] Kerala High Court grants interim anticipatory bail to three accused .The CBI had opposed these applications as well and argued that since the accused persons were law enforcement or intelligence officers, they could influence potential witnesses and would not cooperate with the ongoing investigation. .However, the Court had granted them interim bail on execution of a bond of Rs. 50,000 each and under any conditions the Police may deem fit to impose on them.Nambi Narayanan has impleaded himself as the de-facto complainant in all three cases as well..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 had caused tremendous harassment to him.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 earlier this month. .All connected cases will be heard next week.