ISRO police frame-up case takes a curious turn

Counsel of accused submits land transaction documents between de facto complainant and officers investigation espionage case

The ISRO frame-up case booked in connection with the alleged custodial torture of former space scientist Nambi Narayanan took a curious turn on Wednesday with counsel of one the accused submitting documents of land transactions allegedly involving the de facto complainant and his son and some of the senior officers involved in the investigation of the espionage case.

Sasthamangalam Ajith, counsel for two retired policemen arraigned as accused in the police frame-up case, submitted details of what he claimed to be land transactions between Mr. Narayanan and the wife of a former senior Kerala Police officer, a former Central Bureau of Investigation Joint Director, an official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and some persons who were “suspected to be relatives of certain officers in the administration of justice”.

It was while filing a bail application of the former police officer at the Kerala High Court that counsel submitted the documents, which the accused had submitted before the CBI court, Thiruvananthapuram, earlier.

The documents appeared to suggest that Mr. Narayanan transferred around 12 acres in Tirunelveli to the wife of the former Kerala Police officer. A sale deed was executed by Mr. Narayanan as power of attorney holder of the wife of the officer. The circumstances which led to the registration of the sale deed through Mr. Narayanan, a suspect in the ISRO espionage case and when the husband of the woman was also alleged to be involved in the case, needed to be investigated, counsel argued.

Documents pertaining to a land transaction of 7.04 acres involving senior political leaders and officers in the administration of justice from West Bengal, four transactions of around 40 acres involving a former Director of the CBI, and a few other transactions with some former senior bureaucrats were also produced before the court.

A telephone bill for ₹45,498 for the telephone installed at the house of Mr. Narayanan and some documents related to his application for voluntary retirement from service were also among the documents submitted.

C. Unnikrishnan, counsel for Mr. Narayanan, said the latter had facilitated the purchase of land for his friends. The land transactions, which took place a decade after the CBI closed the case, had nothing to do with the espionage case, he said.

The court posted the case for Monday.