The Kerala Cabinet on Thursday decided to give Rs 1.3 crore as additional compensation to former Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Nambi Narayanan to settle a spy scandal case in which he was falsely implicated, PTI reported.

The case was filed by Narayanan in a sub-court in Thiruvananthapuram. He sought enhanced damages for his illegal arrest and harassment.

The recommendation to compensate him was made by former chief secretary K Jayakumar, who was assigned to look into the matter and settle the case amicably. The settlement agreement would be submitted before the court after consulting legal experts, the government said in a statement.

ISRO espionage case

Narayanan and six others were accused of selling secrets pertaining to ISRO’s cryogenic programme to women who were allegedly spying for Russia, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and other countries. He and two others – Bengaluru-based businessmen Chandrasekharan and SK Sharam – were arrested in November 1994 on charges of espionage. The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In its final report to the chief judicial magistrate in April 1996, the CBI said there was lack of evidence to substantiate the accusations.

All the accused were acquitted by a division bench of the Kerala High Court. In its order, the court had said there was no need to take action against the former director general of police and retired Superintendents of Police KK Joshua and S Vijayan. In 2015, Narayanan moved the Supreme Court seeking criminal and disciplinary action against the officers. He accused them of falsely implicating him in the case.

In September 2018, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said he was a victim of the allegations made by the Kerala Police. The Supreme Court had said Narayanan’s arrest was “needles and unnecessary” and had also granted him a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for being subjected to mental cruelty in the case. Besides this, the National Human Rights Commission had recommended Rs 10 lakh compensation.