The Supreme Court of India on Friday cancelled an order issued by Kerala’s High Court offering bail to four former senior officials, including an intelligence officer, in connection with a conspiracy to frame former scientist Nambi Narayanan in a 1994 espionage case.
The apex court sent the matter back to the Kerala High Court, giving it a four-week deadline to respond on the matter.
The two-judge bench granted protection from arrest to the accused for five weeks as an interim arrangement till the High Court decides the matter.
The order was passed on a plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which launched an investigation in April into the wrongful arrest of Narayan and others accused in the case, trying to identify the officials who falsely fabricated the case against them.
The four accused of fabricating the case are mentioned as former Intelligence Bureau officers R.B. Sreekumar, P.S. Jayaprakash, Thampi S. Durga Dutt and retired Superintendent of Police S. Vijayan.
In 1996, Narayanan was acquitted by a Kerala High Court division bench. The state high court then said there was a lack of evidence to substantiate the accusations.
In 2015, Narayanan filed a case in the Supreme Court against the officials seeking criminal and disciplinary action.