ISRO espionage case: Kerala HC grants anticipatory bail to 5 accused, including former Kerala, Gujarat DGPs

After the high court had granted anticipatory bail to the alleged accused in August 2021, the CBI had moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the bail.

Last month, while considering the CBI petition, the Supreme Court had said that the high court did not “consider the allegations” against the accused, “position held by them” and “role played by them during investigation”.

The Supreme Court bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar asked the Kerala High Court to consider their pleas “afresh” and decide the matter preferably within four weeks from the date of receipt of its order.

In its order, the SC said that “from the impugned judgment(s) and order(s) passed by the high court, it appears that the high court has made some observations without considering the individual role played by the respective accused when they were working in the Kerala Police/IB and without considering the nature of allegations against them”.

The top court said the Kerala High Court “has failed to appreciate that the present FIR was pursuant to the observations and the directions issued by” it.

The CBI had registered the case against the officials in 2021 following a directive from the Supreme Court, which considered the D K Jain Committee report on the conspiracy behind the ISRO spy case.

On one occasion, the Supreme Court had stated that CBI “must collate material on its own” to proceed against those accused. “The investigating agency must collate material on its own and not proceed merely on the basis of the report submitted by Justice D K Jain Committee,” the apex court had said.