Principal District and Sessions Judge P Krishnakumar granted the relief. (Representational)
Former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews was today granted anticipatory bail by a court here in the case registered by the CBI in connection with the illegal arrest of former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan and two Maldives nationals in a 1994 spying case.
The relief was granted by Principal District and Sessions Judge P Krishnakumar, advocate V Ajakumar, who appeared for Siby Mathews, confirmed.
The order was also confirmed by advocate Prasad Gandhi, who had appeared for the two Maldivian nationals, Mariyam Rasheeda and Fouziyya Hasan.
The detailed order is awaited.
Both Mr Narayanan and the two women from Maldives had opposed granting any relief to the former Kerala DGP.
Recently, the Kerala High Court granted anticipatory bail to three former police officers and a retired Intelligence Bureau official in the same case.
The CBI has lodged the case against Siby Mathews and 17 others, including IB officials, for various offences like criminal conspiracy and kidnapping and fabrication of evidence, under the IPC in connection with the arrest of Mr Narayanan and the two Maldives nationals
The Supreme Court on April 15 ordered that the report of a high-level committee on the role of the erring police officials in the espionage case relating to Mr Narayanan be given to the CBI and directed the agency to conduct further investigation.
The three-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) D K Jain, was appointed by the top court in 2018 after acquitting Mr Narayanan in the case.
The Supreme Court had also directed the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation for compelling Mr Narayanan to undergo "immense humiliation".
The espionage case, which had hit the headlines then, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.
The CBI, in its probe back then, had held that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Mr Narayanan's illegal arrest.
The case also had a political fallout, with a section in the Congress targeting then Chief Minister late K Karunakaran over the issue that eventually led to his resignation.