ISRO scientist who has been removed from ISRO recently

          According to recent news in media that S. Nambi Narayanan (is an Indian scientist and aerospace engineer of ISRO) removed from ISRO. 

Image: Nambi Narayanan (Former ISRO Scientist)

'Source Said' , Due to he was falsely charged with espionage and arrested. 

The charges against Nambi Narayanan were dismissed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April 1996.

The Supreme Court of India declared Nambi Narayanan not guilty in 1998 when court bench releases noticed.

The senior official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and he was in-charge of the cryogenics division. 

First off, the year was 1994.

Coming to the facts:

-In 1992, India had signed an agreement with Russia for transfer of technology to develop cryogenic-based fuels. 

The agreement was signed for Rs 235 crore, when the US and France were offering the same technology for Rs 950 crore and Rs 650 crore respectively.

But under threats from the then U.S President George Bush, Russia had to deny cryogenic technology to India.

To overcome this hurdle, India signed a new agreement with Russia to fabricate four cryogenic engines without any transfer in technology and this was when the spy scandal came up.

There was nothing to show in any sorts of gains, monetary or otherwise for Mr. Narayanan.

All those accused working on cryogenic engine development in ISRO and Russian scientists who supported India and the Russian private airline (Ural Aviation) had been made accused(from the case diary of the Kerala Police).

Mr. Narayanan believes that the CIA is to be blamed.

This is from an article by The Hindu:

Mr. Narayanan reiterated that Mr. Mathews had a definite plan that all persons working for development of cryogenic engine technology should be arrested to demoralise them. 

That was the reason why he was arrested in November 1994 without conducting any search of his office or residence and also without seizure of any incriminating evidence from him.

He said he did not earlier raise the allegation that his arrest was part of an agenda of the U.S. accomplished by the CIA conniving with Intelligence Bureau officials, Mr. Mathews and other Kerala police officials because he realised the agenda and criminal conspiracy only later when he himself investigated the entire episode once again.

Then he realised the fact that one Rattan Sehgal, who was the counter intelligence chief of the IB and was associated with the ISRO case investigation, was caught red-handed by the then IB chief Arun Bhagath.

He was accused of having worked for the CIA, which led to his unceremonious exit from the IB in November 1996.

To quote our dear own Abdul Kalam :

If people think that rocket technology can be sold in a few drawings and papers, they are fooling themselves.

--The first hint there was a foreign hand trying to destroy – or at the very least slow down – India's space programme surfaced in 1997 when five leading scientists – Satish Dhawan, U.R. Rao, Yashpal, Rodham Narasimha and K. Chandrasekhar – along with former Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan wrote a joint letter to the government, saying the espionage charges against Nambi Narayanan and Sasi Kumaran were fabricated.

- And to whom was Mr.Narayanan accused of selling the documents to?

He was charged for having transferred the technology to Pakistan through two Maldivian women. Later it was found out, one of the accused Maldivian woman could just about converse in English but was not well educated. Another one could'nt speak a word of English. She came purely for the purpose of putting her child in a school in Bangalore. She also had a health problem and wanted to go through heart surgery.

- Another reason I read the whole scandal was made up was to remove the IG Raman Shrivastava by concocted links to a Maldivian lady.

Now after having said all that, the theory that foreign hands are involved in Indian research is not new.

Two Indian scientists in the past have died under mysterious circumstances. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, father of India’s nuclear energy programme, died in an aircrash at Mont Blanc in France on January 24, 1966. The crash occurred at a time when India was on the verge of conducting a peaceful nuclear explosion in response to China’s nuclear weapons test to be held on October 16, 1964. Due to Bhahbha’s untimely death, India had to wait for eight years before it could test the nuclear device at Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Vikram Sarabhai, who set up India’s space programme, was found dead in his hotel room at Kovalam on December 30, 1971. He was only 52 and in good health. The country’s space programme suffered a major setback yet again. Interestingly, it was Sarabhai who initiated India’s mission to develop its own communication satellites and launch vehicles after watching live images of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games transmitted with the help of satellites.

Well, I did not intend to make this answer this long but had to include everything that I wanted to and there is even more I have omitted. Now while writing this, in 2015 those who made up the scandal are free and those accused have to still live with the spy tag. Hope nothing like this ever happens again.

And by the way,we did develop our own cryogenic engine and India is one of only six countries in the world having this technology but this could have been much earlier if not fr this. :)