Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson V.S. Achuthanandan on Saturday said it still remained a mystery whether the ISRO spy case which rocked Kerala in the mid 90s was a “truth or myth.”
Releasing the book Nirbhayam , authored by ISRO spy case investigator Siby Mathews here, Mr. Achuthanandan said a powerful faction in the Congress had used the case as a pretext to mutiny against the party’s then Chief Minister K. Karunakaran. Mr. Achuthanandan was Leader of the Opposition at the time. He had spearheaded a fiery political campaign in the Assembly and outside to bring the suspects in the case, if any, to book.
Mr. Achuthanandan said the author left the question unanswered in the book. However, Mr. Mathews had dwelt in detail on the happening and left it for the readers to reach their own conclusion. He lauded Mr. Mathews for his probity and superior investigative skills as evidenced in the cases he detected from the infamous Karikkan Villa murders in the early 1980s to the Kalluvathakal liquor tragedy in 2000.
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Poet Sugathakumari referred to him as ‘brother’ and hailed Mr. Mathews as a shining example of policing. She said Mr. Mathews’s unflinching faith in the divine had seen him through trying and perilous times. State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar, Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh and Director General, Prisons, R. Sreerekha were present.