Enforcement Directorate attaches properties of Devas

Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached over Rs 79 crore of Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the controversial Isro/Antrix agreement after the ED searched the premises of Devas last month and recorded the statements of Director (finance) Ranganathan Mohan, founder-director Desaraju Venugopal and former director D. Nataraj Ramachandran Viswanathan in which they confessed to the crime. Two other directors, who are also involved in the criminal conspiracy – Ramachandran Viswanathan and M. Chandrashekhar are in the US, said an official source.

“The ED has provisionally attached the proceeds of the crime amounting to Rs 79,76,00,041 under the PMLA from Devas Multimedia in the form of upfront capacity reservation fee available with the Indian Space Research Organisation, mutual fund deposits and bank deposits,” he said.

The controversial agreement, signed in 2005 between Antrix and Devas and cancelled in 2011 because of various discrepancies, including financial mismanagement, conflict of interest and nepotism, had gained international notoriety. 

In August 2016, the CBI had chargesheeted the then ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair in the case, which had allegedly bled the state exchequer of `578 crore. 

Mr Nair was heading Isro and Antrix Corporation, when Antrix signed a contract with Devas Multimedia for lease of almost the entire transponder space on two satellites that Isro had planned to launch.