Bengaluru: It was a verdict he had been longing for with anguish after nearly two and half decades of wait in the ISRO espionage case. But it was not to be. Former space scientist K Chandrasekhar slipped into coma hours before the Supreme Court delivered its judgement on Friday, dismissing the espionage case as a frame-up.
In its verdict, the apex court held that former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan was “arrested unnecessarily, harassed and subjected to mental cruelty” in a 1994 espionage case. It also awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation to 76-year-old Narayanan for being subjected to mental cruelty in the case, in which Chandrasekhar was also one of the six accused but was exonerated along with others in 1998.
Even as the much waited ruling came at 11 am, Chandrasekhar’s final journey from the world had begun. “He fell into coma on Friday at 7.15 am and passed away at the Columbia Asia Hospital on Sunday at 8.40 pm. He was anxiously waiting for the verdict from early hours of Friday,” said Chandrasekhar’s wife K J Vijayamma as tears welled up in her eyes. Vijayamma recalled the final hours of the scientist who underwent untold agony and misery in the false case that shattered him and his family.PTI
