Antrix-Devas deal: CBI charges ex-ISRO Chairman, top officials

CBI today charged former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair and senior Space Department officials in the Antrix-Devas deal case for causing a loss of Rs 578 crore to the exchequer by abusing their official position to favour a private company.
The case relates to leasing S-Band, restricted wavelength of the INSAT satellites to deliver video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicle and mobile phones to a private company Devas Multimedia by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO.
It was alleged in the FIR that the lease was given in violation of rules causing undue gain of Rs 578 crore to Devas Multimedia and corresponding loss to the exchequer.

The CBI filed its charge sheet before Special Judge at Patiala House court in which it has named the then Secretary Department of Space, Chairman ISRO and Antrix Corporation G Madhavan Nair, Devas Multimedia and seven others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Besides Nair, others named in the charge sheet as accused include the then Executive Director of Antrix K R Sridhar Murthy, former Managing Director of Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas Ramachandra Vishwanathan, and the then Director of Devas M G Chandrasekhar.
Former Additional Secretary in the Department of Space Veena S Rao, the then Director in ISRO A Bhaskar Narayana Rao and two directors of Devas Multimedia D Venugopal and M Umesh have also been named in the charge sheet as accused.

The agency has so far not been able to establish any quid pro quo on behalf of Nair and claims that it has kept open its option to probe the matter further, the sources said.

They said the case against Nair and other government officials is abuse of their official position to facilitate the leasing of coveted wavelength to a private company in violation of guidelines.
Nair said such agreements were signed with more than a
dozen companies who hired transponder capacity from Antrix. He also said there was no loss to exchequer, besides company to company agreements do not go through the Government.

CBI has alleged that Nair flouted the rules as after receiving the proposal from US-based Forge Advisors in April, 2004 regarding leasing of wavelength to Devas Multimedia, he did not refer it to Insat Coordination Committee and Technical Advisors Group.
Instead, he constituted a committee comprising members of the board of Antrix Corporation, which he chaired, for evaluating the proposal. An in principle approval for further processing was granted, CBI has alleged in the charge sheet.
The agency has alleged Devas Multimedia committed cheating by claiming it had ownership and rights to intellectual property to use Digital Media Receiver and Commercial Information Devices.

It also claimed that Antrix, chaired by Nair, was not competent to enter into leasing agreement with Devas.
The agency said it was Department of Space or ISRO which was competent to formalise the agreement after clearance from the competent authority, the sources said.
CBI has alleged Nair's continuance as Secretary of Space Department, Chairman of ISRO and Chairman of Antrix flouted rules, procedures and laws after the proposal from Forge Advisors was received in April 2004.
CBI alleged that Nair visited Vancouver in Canada in October 2004 where a meeting between him and CEO of Devas Multimedia Ramachandra Vishwanathan took place and the proposal was discussed. It claimed that when the discussions were going on there were no policy guidelines for services which Devas Multimedia and Forge Advisors proposed to provide.

In the absence of any policy guidelines, there was no reason for processing the proposal and leasing INSAT S Band to Devas, CBI has said.
Terming the then Additional Secretary Department of Space
Veena Rao a co-conspirator, CBI alleged she knew about the deal between Antrix and Devas Multimedia but did not raise objection.
The agency alleged that then Director in ISRO A Bhaskar Narayana Rao also knew that according to SATCOM policy of the government, only the INSAT coordination committee was competent to decide on leasing wavelength and did not object "deliberately".
It accused Nair of suppressing information regarding the agreement between Antrix Corporation Limited and the Bengaluru based company from the Cabinet. It claimed wrong information regarding utilisation of satellite capacity was given to the Cabinet with respect to multiple expressions of interest, though the agreement was signed with Devas without any multiple expressions of interest.

The CBI said the accused were party to a criminal conspiracy with an intent to cause undue gain to themselves or others by abusing official positions.
It alleged that a deal between Antrix and Devas was fixed in principle in January 2005 for lease of S-Band transponders.
However, the then Executive Director of Antrix signed it six months later only after ensuring that Chandrashekhar and Vishwanathan by then became majority stakeholders in Devas. They continued in that position till 2008-09.
The change in the board, where a US company represented by Chandrashekar and Vishwanathan had majority stakes, was never verified by Antrix as the agreement was in violation of the recommendations of the Shankara Committee which said any such deal should be entered into with an Indian company alone, the CBI contended.

Money had been transferred to the US company from the accounts of the Bangalore-based private company, the CBI alleged.
Further investigation is continuing regarding demand of S-Band frequency by other users including Ministry of Defence for strategic purpose and Department of Telecom, the CBI said.
Nair had been questioned by the CBI in May this year during which he was asked about the details of the contract signed between Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia Private Limited on January 28, 2005. He was the chairman of ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space.
The charge sheet comes a month after India lost its arbitration case in an international tribunal over Antrix scrapping the deal with Devas and is liable to pay a compensation which could run into millions of dollars.