NAMBI NARAYANAN

Jan. 27, 2019

Former ISRO Scientist, S. Nambi Narayanan, was recently awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award.

About:

Career: Nambi Narayanan (born 1941) is an Indian scientist and aerospace engineer. At Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he was in-charge of the cryogenics division.
Espionage case:
- In 1994, he was falsely charged with espionage and arrested. The charges against him were dismissed by the CBI in 1996, and the Supreme Court of India declared him not guilty in 1998.
- In 2018, the Supreme Court awarded Narayanan a compensation of ₹50 lakh, to be recovered from the government of Kerala within eight weeks.
- It also constituted a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge D. K. Jain to inquire into the role of the Kerala police in the arrest of Narayanan.
Autobiography: His autobiography titled Ormakalude Bhramanapatham was released in 2017, which deals with the ISRO espionage case in which he was subjected to repeated third degree and sustained interrogation by the Kerala Police.
Awards: He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2019.