Thiruvananthapuram : Former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran’s son K Muraleedharan on Sunday alleged that if there was a conspiracy in the ISRO spy case, then former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao would have had a role in it.
“Rao often used to target his political rivals by hoisting false cases on them. If there was a conspiracy in the ISRO spy case, then Rao would certainly have played a role,” said Muraleedharan, who is also a Congress Legislator.
He made the remarks while taking part in a meeting along with S Nambi Narayanan, a former ISRO scientist who was arrested on espionage charges along with another top official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), two Maldivian women and a businessman.
The case first surfaced in 1994. At that time, Karunakaran was the Chief Minister. He resigned in 1995.
“Karunakaran had to resign following pressure from Rao and he did it in a week’s time, after being asked to,” said Muraleedharan.
He alleged that Rao had used the case to remove his father K Karunakaran from the chief ministership in 1995. The action against Karunakaran was part of Rao’s political move to eliminate his rivals. Muralidharan said Rao had implicated all those who had posed a threat to him in false cases.
Karunakaran, who had played a major role in elevating Rao to the coveted post following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was considered by Rao as his biggest rival. Four cases were slapped against Karunakaran.
Muralidharan said Karunakaran had told him that Rao could not be trusted. He said that the truth behind the ISRO case will come out if action was taken against three police officers, named by the CBI in its final report, for their unprofessional conduct of investigation.
The cases against the three, then Deputy Inspector General, Siby Mathews, who is currently Chief Information Commissioner; then Circle Inspector S Vijayan and then Superintendent of Police K K Joshua, were dropped by the Oommen Chandy government within two months after it came to power in 2011.
Muralidharan said he would request the Chief Minister to reopen the cases against the three officers. He said he will approach the Congress high command if his request is turned by Oommen Chandy.
Kerala apologises
Thiruvananthapuram: In a rare humanitarian gesture, people from different walks of life joined hands here on Sunday to apologise to former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist S Nambi Narayanan, whose life and career were destroyed after he was framed in a false spying case.
The public apology, was the first since the 78-year-ols scientist was acquitted by Supreme Court.
