Homi Jehangir Bhabha, often referred to as the “Father of the Indian Nuclear Programme”, is certainly one of the greatest minds to have ever been born in the sacred land of India. He was the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which has now been renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour.

On the 24th of January, 53 years ago, the great man met a tragic end when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc while he was travelling to Vienna for a conference. Many believe that the crash wasn’t an accident but premeditated assassination carried out by American intelligence agencies to thwart India’s nuclear programme.

Such conspiracy theories received a major boost when an alleged conversation between journalist Gregory Douglas and a top CIA operative Robert T. Crowley was made public by a news media called TBRNews.org in a book titled ‘Conversations with the Crow’. The transcript of the conversation hinted at a CIA role in the ‘accident’.

Dr Homi Bhabha and JRD Tata discussing the TIFR plan, circa 1960

The CIA officer was quoted as saying: “We had trouble, you know, with India back in the 60’s when they got uppity and started work on an atomic bomb…the thing is, they were getting in bed with the Russians.” Referring to Bhabha, he said, “that one was dangerous, believe me. He had an unfortunate accident. He was flying to Vienna to stir up more trouble when his Boeing 707 had a bomb go off in the cargo hold.”

The cryptic manner of Crowley’s statement stirred quite a conversation. It is evident that he was talking in innuendos. If a bomb went off in the flight, then it certainly could not have been an ‘unfortunate accident’.

There’s a history, however, of top Indian scientists suffering a similar fate. There was the incident of former ISRO Scientist Dr Nambi Narayanan who was wrongfully arrested and tortured after being falsely accused in the 1994 ISRO spy case. Recently, the Supreme Court awarded him compensation for Rs 50 lakhs for all the hardship that he had to endure.

Former ISRO scientist, S Nambi Narayanan, has spent over two decades fighting espionage charges: BCCL

Nambi Narayanan was a scientist in ISRO and headed the cryogenics division. In November 1994, Narayanan was arrested by the Kerala police after allegations of espionage under the sections 3,4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act. After his arrest, he was remanded in police custody for a period of 50 days during which he was reportedly harassed and tortured by officials of Kerala police and the Indian intelligence bureau. However, after an investigation by the CBI, the allegations on him were found to be false and in 1998, the Supreme Court upheld the findings by the CBI.

Incidentally, Dr Narayanan is one of the pioneers of liquid rocket fuel technology in India. The initial research of his time was also used in India’s moon mission.

Then, there was the mysterious death of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space programme. He was found dead in his hotel room on the 30th of December, 1971, at the Halcyon Castle at Kovalam. He had shown no signs of illness the previous evening when he was meeting scientists and holding a discussion. The next morning, however, he was dead.

Dr Narayanan certainly appears to be of the opinion that international powers were involved in Sarabhai’s death. He wrote in his biography, “The challenges and questions raised by his death are many. If he was eliminated, it is likely there was an international conspiracy behind it. Or else, how did such a scientific talent like him die in such an unnatural manner?’’

Narayanan, who had worked closely with Sarabhai during his time as a junior scientist at ISRO, dedicates an entire chapter to him in his biography. “A man who had never smoked in his life, a teetotaler,’’ he wrote. “Then how was he led to such a death? Why was the cremation performed without even an autopsy despite the fact the dead man was such a great scientist? All these remained questions.”

He also cited Crowley’s conversation which we have mentioned above. “In it, Crowley is quoted as saying that the Indian victory in the 1965 India-Pakistan war made America uncomfortable and that it viewed with concern the emergence of India as a nuclear power. The book says India’s nuclear dreams were wiped out over Mont Blanc without leaving even a trace of evidence. Read together with it, Sarabhai’s death and the (ISRO) spy case will leave us uncomfortable,’’ he asserted.