NAMBI NARAYANAN -Indian scientist

BORN- Trivandrum,India

NATIONALITY- Indian

OCCUPATION- ISRO Scientist

About

S.Nambi Narayanan is an Indian Scientist.As a senior official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he was in-charge of the Cryogenics division. In 1994, he was falsely charged with espionage and arrested. The charges against him were dismissed by the CBI,1996 and the Supreme court declared him not guilty in 1998.

In 2018,the Supreme court through the bench of Deepak Misra,awarded a compensation of 50 lakes to Nambi Narayan ,to be recovered from the state government within 8 weeks and the apex court also constituted a committee headed by retired SC judge Jain to inquire into the role of kerala police officials in the arrest of Narayanan.

Early life

Narayan hails from a middle class brahmin family with roots in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.

Career

Narayanan introduced the liquid fuel rocket technology in india in the early 1970s ,when APJ Abdulkalam’s team was working on solid motors.He foresaw the need for liquid fuelled engines for ISRO’s future civilian space programmes.He was encouraged by the then ISRO chairman Satish Dhawan and his successor U.R Rao. Narayanan developed liquid propellant motors first building the successful 600kg thrust engine in the mid 1970s and thereafter moving on to bigger engines.

In 1992,India had signed an agreement with Russia for transfer of technology to develop cryogenic-based fuels.The agreement was signed for rupees 235 crore and when the US and France were offering the same technology for rupees 950 crore and rupees 650 crore respectively due to currency rate. Documents show that US President George.H.W Bush wrote to Russia,raising objections against this agreement and even threatening to blacklist the country from the select-five club. Russia under Boris Yeltsin,succumbed to the pressure and denied cryogenic technology to India. To bypass this monopoly,India signed a new agreement with Russia to fabricate four tender without a formal transfer to technology. ISRO had already reached a consensus with kerala Hitech Industries limited (KELTCH)which would have provided the cheapest tender for fabricating engines. But this did not happen as the spy scandal surfaced in late 1994.

After working for nearly two decades,with French assistance, his team developed the Vikas Engine used by several ISRO rockets including the Polar Satellite launch vehicle(PSLV) that took Chandrayan -1 to the moon in 2008. The Vikas engine is used in the second stage of PSLV and as the second and the four strap on stages of geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV)

Case against Nambi Narayanan

The case pertains to the leakage of vital defence secrets to two alleged maldivian intelligence officers in 1994-Marian Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan.Narayanan was among the two scientists who were accused of selling ISRO secrets for crores. The case was first investigated by the kerala police and later handed over to the CBI.

Narayanan was arrested and was lodged in jail for 50 days. In 1996,the central probe agency in its probe concluded that Narayanan was wrongly framed in the case by the police and that no espionage had taken it.

According to him, the intelligence bureau (IB) and state police officials who were interrogating him in connection with the case, wanted him to make false accusations against the top brass of ISRO. But when he refused to comply, he was tortured by the officials until he collapsed and was admitted to hospital.

In this statement, Narayanan had later said that his main complaint was against ISRO because it did not support him.

In 1998,the Supreme court had ordered a compensation of rupees 1 lakh to Narayanan and others who were discharged in the case. The court had directed the state government to pay the amount to Narayanan and others. Narayanan later approached theNHRC claiming compensation from the state government for the mental agony and torture suffered by him.

In March 2001, NHRC after hearing arguments and taking into consideration the supreme court’s 1998 order,awarded him an interim compensation of rupees 10 lakh.

Books written by Nambi Narayanan