ED attaches Rs 80 cr of Devas assets over Isro satellite deal

Says three directors admitted to crime against Antrix

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached assets worth nearly Rs 80 crore of Devas Multimedia Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), saying three directors of the satellite services provider had admitted to criminal conspiracy against India's space agency over the alleged deal to lease a satellite. 

The amount was what Devas had collected as fee to reserve space on a satellite that was to be leased by Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

ED had taken over the case based on a CBI FIR which alleged that Devas had illegally entered into an agreement with Isro and Antrix by fraudulently representing certain facts. It further alleged that after entering into the agreement, Devas collected investments from abroad through criminal conspiracy. Antrix had signed a deal with Devas in 2005 to provide it with crucial S-Band wavelength, which is primarily kept for strategic interests of the country.

"On January 28, 2005 Devas Multimedia Private Limited Bangalore, falsely claimed that it had the ownership and intellectual property rights to use the technology for delivering multimedia services (to) enter into an agreement with Isro/ACL (Antrix)," the ED said in a statement.

The agency claimed the agreement entered by Devas with Isro/Antrix was "illegal" as Devas didn't have any technology/ownership of intellectual property rights to deliver the multimedia services.

The central agency said it had recorded the statements of three Devas officials — Ranganathan Mohan, director (Finance), Desaraju Venugopal, founder-director and D Nataraj, former director — when it searched the premises of company in Bengaluru last month. It also alleged that two directors of the firm— Ramachandran Viswanathan and M Chandrasekhar, were in the US.

The fresh government action against Devas comes even as it is fighting a case in the Delhi high court against the satellite services provider. Devas has won two international tribunal awards against the cancellation of its contract with Antrix to lease two satellites to India.

Last July, the Permanent Case of Arbitration at Hague found that India breached its bilateral treaty commitments with Mauritius to accord fair and equitable treatment to foreign investors of Devas by cancelling the deal. The US investors of Devas, Columbia Capital and Telcom Ventures, had approached the tribunal seeking relief over India's decision to cancel the contract citing national security issues.

In September 2015, the International Court of Arbitration had asked Antrix to pay $672 million (Rs 4,400 crore) to Devas over the cancellation of the deal. Devas is also fighting a case based on the verdict in the Delhi High Court.

Devas had signed a contract with Antrix in 2005 to lease two satellites that would use the S band spectrum to beam high-speed internet on mobile devices.  It got caught in the political storm that erupted over the 2G telecom scam. It also cost five senior Isro scientists, including its former chairman G Madhavan Nair, who had by then retired, opportunities to work on government engagements.