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 ordered a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Narayanan.
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 in July this year.
On July 26, 2021, Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna of the Supreme Court had ordered that after registration of FIRs, the CBI must collect evidence on its own and not “merely” rely on the report of the Justice DK Jain Committee that had earlier looked into the alleged police cover-up.
The four accused had later approached the Kerala High Court for relief which was allowed.
Source: Barandbench
