Source: – @LillyMaryPinto / Twitter.
Dr. Homi Bhabha, father of Indian Nuclear Program died in an air crash on 24th Jan 1966, 13 days after the death of PM LB Shastri.
He was scheduled to attend an IAEA Scientific Advisory Committee meet in Vienna.
All 117 passengers including 6 British nationals on board perished. https://t.co/nUUNv3Qky7— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
His plane, AI 101 ‘Kanchenjunga’, a Boeing 707 crashed near Mont Blanc, France en route to Vienna.
The plane was preparing to descend to land at the Geneva Airport in Switzerland.
Minutes before the crash, it was at an altitude of 3000 feet above the peak of Mont Blanc Summit.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
India has never conducted a serious Investigation in this matter, considering Homi Bhabha’s stature.
The foreign investigation agencies conducted a shoddy investigation and declared it as a CFIT accident.
CFIT refers to Controlled Flight into Terrain. pic.twitter.com/zVdApyQnqo
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
It meant the plane was in control & crashed due to wrong navigational techniques i.e. the Pilot flew the plane into the mountain while making a wrong descent to the Airport.
This wasn't convincing as the Pilots were experienced & the navigational equipment was functioning well.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Henry Roche, a property consultant by profession lived 200 km away in Lyon, France.
He was an aviation enthusiast who collected 3 tonnes of the debris of the AI 101 over a period of 5 years.It was found scattered over an area of 25 Square kilometer.
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
He believed that if the plane had crashed in the mountain, the debris would not be scattered over such a wide area.
There would have been a huge explosion & a raging fire due to the fuel in tanks.
But, no such explosion was reported by the people nearby.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
He suspects a mid-air collision with an Aircraft/Surface to Air Missile.
The lack of oxygen at that altitude made combustion a remote possibility & ruled out the explosion during the collision.
He also believed that it could not have crashed from that altitude in such less time.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Roche had made around 80 kg of documented research papers regarding the crash and recorded his investigations in a DVD.
He was ready to hand over all his observations and debris to the Indian Government provided, they pay for the shipment charges.
No one came forward. pic.twitter.com/YY6mWO3Jad— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Then of course is the mysterious death of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.
Death came to Vikram Sarabhai on 31st Dec 1971 in a quiet room of his favourite resort on Kovalam beach- Halycon Castle Hotel.
It was not a plane crash nor was there any serious enquiry into his death. pic.twitter.com/GNuJfFbbvm— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
He witnessed firing of a Russian rocket & inaugurated Thumba railway station, that day & was set to leave for Ahmedabad to spend the New Year with his family.
"When Amma told me, I first thought it was a plane crash because Papa's medical reports were fine" says daughter Mallika.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
"The whole process would have been quite unpleasant," says his son Kartikeya, when asked about carrying out an inquest.
"It was my grandmother, Sarladevi's decision not to have a postmortem," he adds.
"We saw no point in carrying out a postmortem," his daughter Mallika also said.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Amrita Shah, in her book 'Vikram Sarabhai – a life' mentions about murmurs of international foul play.
Kamla Chaudhary, a close associate of Vikrambhai at IIM-A is quoted saying, "Vikram had told me that he was being watched by both Americans and Russians."
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
"The seat next to him was kept vacant in a flight & an entire coupe allotted to him if he travelled alone by train, for security reasons," says Padmanabh Joshi, a close associate.
Vikram Sarabhai was brought to Mumbai as freight' in the very flight he was to travel as passenger.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Nambi Narayanan, former project director of the prestigious cryogenic system project in ISRO has dedicated a whole chapter in his autobiography (titled 'Ormakalude Bhramanapatham' which was released on 23 October 2017 by Shashi Taroor) to the former ISRO Supremo Vikram Sarabhai. pic.twitter.com/ed4RhJfK2m
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Nambi Narayanan's tale is one long tale of injustice, indifference & international proxy war that left a trail of broken reputations & derailed a revolutionary space project of India, pushing us back by decades in the field of Space Research. pic.twitter.com/4EUh1AMb4o
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Scientists Nambi Narayanan & D Sasikumar were arrested on 30-11-1994 under the Official Secrets Act for charges of espionage.
They were accused of selling 'vital defence secrets' of ISRO for millions to Maldivian Women Mariam Rasheeda & Fauzia Hassan allegedly working for ISI. pic.twitter.com/NUGdWIH8aG— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Defense officials said that certain sensitive & secret info pertaining to highly confidential "flight test data" from experiments with rocket & satellite launches were also leaked & could have jeopardised National Security.
Media branded Nambi a 'Desh Drohi', overnight.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
What never jelled, according to a journalist who visited Nambi's home the day he was arrested, was that it was an ordinary house with so signs of such 'corrupt' gains.
Nambi lived a modest life. an out of order refrigerator & a old TV were no sign of opulence.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
His house never looked like the house of a person who made 'millions' by selling State Secrets.
In fact, it never even looked like the house of someone who held a critical & a prestigious- well paying job at ISRO.
It was a mismatch from the day one.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Nambi was inhumanly tortured for the the next 50 days in the SIT's custody.
He was revived at the Hindustan Latex guesthouse, where he was kept under custody by a Dr Sukumaran of SreeKrishna hospital.Nambi's legs were swollen & had internal hemorrhage when he was hospitalised.
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
He says that the Intelligence Bureau officials who interrogated him wanted him to make false accusations against the top brass of ISRO & asked him to implicate Muthunayagam, then Director, Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC).
When he refused,he was tortured until he collapsed.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
ISRO turned a blind eye towards the fate of their scientists.
Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, the then ISRO chairman, stated that ISRO could not interfere in a legal matter. .
while media ran their own trial & passed judgements on the basis of concocted stories— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
ISRO terminated the services of the two distinguished scientists immediately after they were framed in the Spy Case.
Later, after a clean chit from the CBI & acquittal by the SC in 1998, Sasikumar & Narayanan were transferred out of Thiruvananthapuram & given desk jobs.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Former ISRO chairmen Satish Dhawan, UR Rao & Yashpal, eminent space scientists Radam Narasimha & S Chandrasekhar, & former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan issued a statement on 26 December, 1996, warning – pic.twitter.com/tS2fcTWrDk
— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
This ISRO spy case, according to the CBI Chief Vijay Rama Rao, was a "cock and bull story" fabricated by the IB officers who were in collusion with some foreign agencies.
It started on 20-10-1994 with the arrest of Rasheeda, a Maldivian citizen on charges of Visa overstay pic.twitter.com/xaUkq815h5— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
She was in Kerala for a purpose related to the education of her children when Inspector Vijayan, a member of the SIT, in a routine check of foreigners, stumbled on Rasheeda whose visa had just expired.
Offering to help, renew her visa, he tried to molest her which she resisted. pic.twitter.com/7v0naTq7ON— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Out of revenge, he accused her of having links with Sasi Kumar & that she & her friend Fauzia were Maldivian spies working on behalf of ISI.
The Kerala police arrested the Maldivian women in violation of all norms.
Rasheeda singles out Vijayan & his police force for her woes. pic.twitter.com/DVrNv5HLt1— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Inspector Vijayan denied these allegations & claims that he impounded Rasheeda's visa on grounds of national security.
He says telephone print-outs obtained from Hotel Samrat indicated that Rasheeda was in touch with ISRO scientist Sasikumar, one of the co-accused in the case.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
Her lawyer KD Nair reveals that she had purchased a flight ticket well within the visa's lifespan.
All flights had been cancelled, due to unforeseen reasons & Rasheeda had gone to the Local Police Station, to make an application for temporary extension of her visa, as per rules.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
These documents were on record, easily accessible.
Taking cognisance of this, Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate acquitted Rasheeda of the charge of overstaying.
The judgment dated 14-11-1995, observed that Inspector Vijayan had seized her air tickets to detain her— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
On May 2, 1996, the court discharged the accused in the espionage case for lack of evidence to sustain the charge.
She was now acquitted of the 2 main charges –
Visa overstay & espionage.— Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) May 23, 2018
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