D. Sasikumaran is an Indian aerospace engineer who worked at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He was arrested in 1994 after being accused of alleged espionage.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
D Sasikumaran was born in 1942 (age 80 years; as of 2022), and hails from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Family
parents and siblings
There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
wife and children
D Sasikumaran’s wife is a doctor. In 1994, he served as Assistant Professor at the Medical College Thiruvananthapuram
relationships/affairs
He was rumored to have had an affair with a Maldivian woman, Mariam Rasheeda, who was suspected of being a spy. Reportedly, Sasikumaran visited her in her hotel room at least twice. Kerala Police alerted IB about this on 15 October 1994.
Maryam Rasheeda
livelihood
Before his arrest in 1994, Sasikumaran served as Deputy Director of ISRO’s Cryogenic Technology Division and was in charge of cryogenic technology transfer from Russia. After rumors of his relationship with a spy woman surfaced in the media, he was transferred to the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. After the charges against them were dismissed in 1996, Sasikumar and Narayanan were transferred out of Thiruvananthapuram and given desk jobs. Later, Sasikumaran started working as an engineering consultant in Thiruvananthapuram.
controversies
Flagged by ISRO for questionable integrity
D Sasikumaran and Nambi Narayanan were accused of violating the 1964 code of conduct for government employees because they were working to pursue their personal interests while still at ISRO. While Narayanan was privately advising a contractor with many foreign exchange transactions, Sasikumaran was planning to set up a private firm. As a result, a decade before the 1994 espionage case came to light, scientists were flagged by ISRO for having questionable integrity, running private businesses and possessing unaccounted assets.
Arrested in false espionage case in 1994
In November 1994, D. Sasikumaran, his associates Nambi Narayanan, Sudhir Kumar Sharma (a Bangalore-based businessman), K. Chandrasekhar (the Indian representative of the Russian space agency Glavkosmos), and Maldivian women Maryam Rasheeda and Fausiya Hassan were arrested. After being accused of alleged espionage by a team of Kerala Police and Intelligence Bureau officials.
Maryam Rashida and Fousia Hasan arrested in 1994 ISRO espionage case
Nambi Narayanan arrested in 1994 ISRO espionage case
The arrest was based on videotaped statements of a co-worker who alleged that he and Narayanan had received money to transfer rocket engine drawings and documents to two Maldivian women, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan, who were accused of being spies. Was suspected.
corruption allegations
When intelligence agencies raided Sasikumaran’s house, they found that apart from a few houses in Thiruvananthapuram, Sasikumaran owned 1.5 acres of land in an industrial estate in Tamil Nadu. The CBI estimated the value of his assets to be more than Rs 55 lakh and he was detained under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Facts/General Knowledge
- In 2022, the biographical drama film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ based on the lives of Nambi Narayanan and D Sasikumaran was released.
- After finding the telephone numbers of Sasikumaran’s residence and office in Maryam’s diary, the police took Sasikumaran into custody. Later it was revealed that Sasikumaran knew Mariam through their common friend Chandrashekhar. ISRO had business with Chandrashekhar regarding cryogenic project. Apparently, Chandrasekhar and Maryam met at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, after which he referred her to Sasikumaran for consultation with his wife, who was a doctor.
- Initially, the Kerala Police dismissed Sasikumaran’s relationship with Maryam as a “sex scandal without any consequences”. However, when intelligence agencies arrested Maryam’s associate Fauzia Hasan and interrogated both of them, they concluded that Sasikumaran and Maryam may have been involved in a larger espionage network operating in ISRO.
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Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn