Isro ex-chief named in Antrix-Devas chargesheet

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a chargesheet in the Antrix-Devas deal case naming former Isro chairman G. Madhavan Nair and other senior officials for facilitating “wrongful” gain of Rs 578 crore to private multi-media company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro.

Mr Nair was the chairman of the governing council of Antrix when the multi-crore spectrum deal was finalised, giving Devas rights for delivery of videos, multimedia content and information services to mobile phones using S-Band through GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites and terrestrial systems in India.

Besides Mr Nair, others named in the chargesheet include K.R. Sridhar Murthy, former executive director of Antrix, Ramachandra Vishwanathan, former managing director of USA-based Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas, and M.G. Chandrasekhar, former director of Devas. The chargesheet, filed in a special CBI court here, also named Veena S. Rao, former additional secretary in the department of space, A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao, then director at Isro, and two directors of Devas Multi media, D. Venugopal and M. Umesh.

The CBI has accused them of committing offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to cheating and certain provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly being party to a criminal conspiracy with the intent to cause undue gain to themselves or others by abusing their official positions. The CBI has alleged that Mr Nair and other 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-6A satellites and terrestrial systems in India, and “thus caused wrongful gain of Rs 578 crore” to the private firm and its owners. Reacting to the CBI’s chargesheet, Mr Nair told a news channel: “I will challenge the chargesheet filed by the CBI.”

The chargesheet comes a month after India lost an arbitration case at an international arbitration court over Antrix scrapping the deal with Devas and is liable to pay compensation that could run into millions of dollars. The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled in July that the Indian government had acted “unfairly” and “inequitably” in nullifying the contract. The controversial deal (finalised on January 28, 2005) had resulted in early exit of Mr Nair as the chairman of ISRO. Mr Nair was questioned by the CBI in May about the details of the contract signed between Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia Private Limited. He was not just the chairman of ISRO, but also secretary, department of space, and chairman of the governing council of Antrix Corporation Limited when the deal was finalised.

The CBI’s chargesheet says that the deal between Antrix and Devas was fixed in principle in January 2005 for the lease of S-Band transponders. However, the then executive director of Antrix signed it six months later, after ensuring that Mr Chandrashe-khar and Mr Vishwanathan became majority stakeholders in Devas. They continued in that position till 2009. The change in Devas’ board, which included Mr Chandrashe-khar and Mr Vish-wanathan who had majority stakes in a US company, was not verified by Antrix, and thus the agreement was in violation of Shankara committee recommendations which states agreements should be entered into only with Indian companies. Money was transferred to the US company, Forge Advisers, from the accounts of a Bangalore-based private company, the CBI alleged.