Ameer Sultan, a man linked to DMK and Islamist groups who has been accused of money laundering through drug trade has peddled baseless allegations about former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan.
The Dravidianist director was ranting about the increasing number of films coming sympathetic towards the Hindutva cause and said that that ever since Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, cinema has increasingly been leveraged for political messaging rather than pure entertainment.
Targeting Nambi Narayanan, Ameer said “We also see films being made that depict Nambi Narayanan, who was accused of leaking military secrets, as a noble figure.”
It is to be noted that Ameer is a man who shares close ties with Jaffer Sadiq, a former DMK NRI Wing official accused of running an international drug-trafficking network. Dubbed Sadiq’s “bestie,” Ameer was named in an ED chargesheet alleging money laundering through films and was summoned by the NCB in April 2024 in connection with the smuggling of pseudoephedrine worth ₹2,000 crore. In October 2024, a special court summoned both Ameer and Sadiq as part of the ongoing money-laundering case.
Many on social media have slammed Ameer for insulting Nambi Narayanan.
Nambi Narayanan Case Timeline
In November 1994, Narayanan and his other scientist collegues in charge of the cryogenic technology transfer from Russia, were arrested by the Kerala Police on false charges of espionage. They were physically under the custory of IB officers. The case was eventually transferred to the CBI which concluded that the case was a sham.
Although the CBI submitted a closure report in 1996 stating that the espionage case was fabricated, the Communist government in Kerala had kept the issue lingering for decades.
The then CPI(M)-led government ordered more investigations which was struck down by the Supreme Court in in May 1998.
In September 1999, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) passed strictures against the government of Kerala for having damaged Narayanan’s distinguished career in space research along with the physical and mental torture to which he and his family were subjected.
The Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that Narayanan was not guilty of any of the espionage charges as accused by the Kerala Police and the bench called the case was “unnecessary” and that “he was implicated.” It also appointed a three-member panel headed by a former Supreme Court judge DK Jain to probe the arrest and torture of former space scientist Nambi Narayanan in the ‘ISRO spy scandal’ that turned out to be fake.
On 14 April 2021 the Supreme Court of India ordered a CBI probe into the involvement of police officers in the conspiracy after the DK Jain Committee report pointed out a conspiracy.
The Nambi Narayanan episode marks the darkest chapter in the history of Indian space as it curtailed India’s emergence as a space power by atleast two decades.
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