``I will be a star in Maldives,'' she said, just before she boarded the Air Maldives flight at 12.30 pm. ``My daughter is waiting for me. She called me yesterday too,'' she added.

The second accused in the sensational case, Rasheeda spent endless nights in prison even after the case was over, just to face the libel suits filed against her for daring to say that she was assaulted by the police.

After shuttling between prison and courts, jeered and shouted at by the crowds, Rasheeda got relief recently when the Supreme Court strongly criticised the E K Nayanar Government for trying to reopen the case. That was when hope returned to the Maldivian national, four years after she was arrested from a Thiruvananthapuram lodge for overstaying in India. The police claimed they found the telephone numbers of a few ISRO scientists in her telephone book. A fewdays later, she was charged with spying.

Two ISRO scientists, Nambi Narayanan and D Sasikumaran, businessman Sudhir Kumar Sarma, Russian space agency representative K Chandrasekhar, and another Maladivian woman Fouziya Hassan were also arrested and charged with taking out secret documents from ISRO. The CBI probe which found the case baseless finally led to the exoneration of all the six accused. The CBI filed closure petition at the Ernakulam judicial first class magistrate court ending the case. But Rasheeda and Fauziya were re-arrested by the police under the National Security Act.

On June 19, 1996, the Left Democratic Front government ordered another investigation by the state police into the case. This decision was subsequently overruled by the Supreme Court following an appeal by the accused. The court criticised the State Government for its decision to reopen the case and awarded Rs 1 lakh to each of the accused. The government first let off Fauziya Hassan following the Supreme Court order. MariamRasheeda was in jail for two more months facing three defamation cases against her. She got bail and was freed on April 29, 1998. She could not leave for Maldives as the courts refused her permission. On July 1, the Thiruvananthapuram district court gave her permission to leave the country.