Isro ex-bosses named in CBI’s Antrix-Devas deal charge sheet

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday formally charged former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair of facilitating

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday formally charged former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair of facilitating wrongful gain of ` 578 crore to private multimedia company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO.

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Besides Madhavan, who was also secretary in the department of space, the agency also charged Veena S Rao, former additional secretary in the same department, and A Bhaskar Narayana Rao, a former director in ISRO.

“The charge-sheet was filed in the court of special CBI judge in Patiala House Courts in Delhi,” said CBI press information officer RK Gaud.

Reacting to the CB I’ s move, Nair told HT in T hi ru van ant ha pu ram that he would challenge the CBI charges in court. “I didn’t do anything wrong and there is no proof against me. I will take legal recourse. My predecessor, K Radhakrishnan, had given a wrong picture that resulted in the case,” he said, adding that his hands were clean.

Only a month earlier, India lost its arbitration case in an international tribunal over Antrix scrapping the deal with Devas. The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the Indian government had acted ‘unfairly’ and ‘inequitably’ in nullifying the contract. The ruling makes India liable to pay compensation running into millions of dollars.

The CBI has named the then executive director of Antrix, KR Sridhar Murthy, former managing director of Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas, Ramachandra Vishwanathan, and the then director of Dev as, MG Chandrasekhar, as accused in the case.

The CBI has alleged the government officials abused their position to favour Devas by giving them rights for delivery of videos, multimedia content and information services to mobile phones using S-Band through GSAT-6 and GSAT-6 Asatellites and terrestrial systems in India. The rights were given in violation of the guidelines laid down pertaining to leasing of INSAT capacity.

“An alleged loss of Rs 578 crore was caused to the government exchequer,” said a CBI statement.