The ISRO spy scandal is one that will remain etched in our memory for a long time to come. One of the accused, Maldivian national Fauziya Hassan spoke at the Kerala Literature Festival, 2019 about her experiences during the trial and her three-and-a-half years long imprisonment. She was interviewed by noted Malayalam journalist M.P. Basheer. In her three-and-a-half years in three different jails in Kerala, Fauziya learnt just one word in Malayalam - urumbu or ant – she described how ants crawled over her while she slept.
Basheer’s first question was how Fauziya ended up in Kerala at the time of the accusation. She replied that she came to India in search of a good school for her fourteen-year-old daughter. Fauziya did not know of either Nambi Narayanan or Raman Srivastava – two names that frequently came up during the police interrogation.
When asked whether she believed there were other players outside who were influencing the plot, she agreed that politics played a major role in this. She also added that she will approach the Supreme Court to ask for compensation for the same. When she was invited to speak at the Kerala Literature Festival, Fauziya was scared to accept the invitation at first.