However, claims Mathews, it is he who has been victimised and has been fighting a lone battle to clear his name. “Narayanan has been fighting the legal battle against me for so many years

and there is a common feeling that he is the victim in the ISRO case. But it is me who has been victimised in the case. I have been fighting it with my own money. No government has supported

me in that, though the previous UDF government took the decision not to take action against the investigating officers,” Mathews said. Already, two awards of compensation have been made to

Narayanan in regard to the case. In 1998, the Supreme Court had directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs one lakh to Narayanan and the others discharged in the case. Later,

The valid proof is the application he gave to the Chairman of ISRO seeking voluntary retirement. Mariam Rasheeda, the Maldives native who was the first to be arrested in the case, was held

on October 20, 1994. On November 1, Narayanan applied for voluntary retirement. Isn’t it fishy?” Mathews asks. Siby Mathews himself opted for voluntary retirement in 2011, one year shy of

retirement age. The DGP of Fire and Rescue Services, at the time, Mathews was then appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner. He retired from this post in 2016, after a five-year term.

Mathews also says that while the entire media glare fell on him, there were also other officials involved in the case whose role has been ignored. In particular, he points to ADGP Rishi Raj

Singh, at present the Excise Commissioner of the state. Rishi Raj Singh was the Deputy Commissioner of Thiruvananthapuram when the scandal surfaced in 1994. “He wrote to the Intelligence

Bureau with the details collected by S Vijayan who was the Sub Inspector of Special Branch at that time. Have you ever heard him mentioning the case anywhere?” Mathews asks. The silence of

these officers has never been questioned, but his reputation has been tarnished, he argues.