“This tops the list!” former ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan told The Hindu on Friday night, reacting to the news that the Government of India had decided to confer the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour, on him.
He described it as a doubly sweet moment in a gruelling battle that lasted a quarter of a century. “I did not expect this. It was a pleasant surprise. When the whole thing started in 1994, I lost everything, including my dignity. It has all been coming back step by step,” he said, seated at ‘Sangeetha,’ his home at Eanchakkal, which was flooded with visitors on Friday night.
Hounded and branded a spy in the infamous ISRO spy case of 1994, Mr. Narayanan had been cleared by the Supreme Court in 1998. But his real battle — for justice and compensation — had only begun. In September 2018, he won a landmark victory when the apex court awarded him ₹50 lakh as compensation.
“The Supreme Court’s final judgment on September 14, 2018, categorically stated that I was a victim of malicious prosecution. That was the most important thing,” Mr. Narayanan said. In October, the State government surprised him by holding a formal function to hand over the cheque. “It was great thing. It had no precedent. And now, the Government of India itself has accepted my stand,” he said.
