New Delhi: Even the most jaded hacks had to admit the story sizzled — sex, missiles, two femme-fatales, honeytraps, Russian arms dealer, more sex, a plot to overthrow the Maldives government, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and yet more sex.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spy scandal of 1994, in time, would be established by the Supreme Court and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to involve neither spies, nor sex, nor the slightest hint of scandal — but not before many lives were destroyed.

The sordid story of the ISRO investigation has come into the spotlight again, after last week’s arrest of former Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) R.B. Sreekumar, along with human rights campaigner Teesta Setalvad. The arrests followed the Supreme Court saying their allegations of state involvement in the 2002 Gujarat massacres were made “with ulterior motives”.

For years now, Sreekumar’s supporters have cast him as an honest officer, committed to upholding his constitutional commitments to secularism and justice.

To the victims of the ISRO case — key among them Princeton-educated aerospace engineer Nambi Narayanan — Sreekumar was a malign agent, who fabricated evidence to settle a personal vendetta.

The ISRO investigation

The grandson of the eminent freedom fighter and journalist Balaramapuram G. Raman Pillai, Sreekumar was educated in Thiruvananthapuram, and joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1971.

He served as Superintendent of Police in seven...

Read Full Story: https://theprint.in/india/dodgy-isro-case-to-2002-whistleblower-ips-officer-r...