The CBI has registered a case to probe the controversial Antrix-Devas deal that caused a loss of Rs578 crore to the exchequer. Following the registration of the case on Monday, the agency conducted searches on Wednesday at the residence of the then Executive Director KR Sridhara Murthi and the office of Devas in Bengaluru.
Besides Murthi and and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Pvt ltd, the agency has also booked R Vishwanathan and MG Chandrasekhar of Force Advisors llC, USA and other unknown officials of Antrix Corporation ltd, commercial arm of ISRO under the Department of Space. The agency has slapped 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act against them.
The agency will probe the alleged wrongful gain of Rs578 crore by Devas and its owners, official sources said. The CBI FIR has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and the Government officials abused their position by favouring Devas by giving them rights for delivery of videos, multimedia and information services to mobile phones using S-Band through GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites and terrestrial systems in India.
The accused persons and the firms allegedly entered into criminal conspiracy with unknown official of Antrix Corporation ltd and cheated the Government and the public servants, by abusing their official position, gave the right to an ineligible company.
The Antrix-Devas deal led to the premature exit of the then chairman of ISRO G Madhavan Nair as he was the Chairman of the Governing Council of Antrix when the controversial agreement was finalised. The deal was annulled on February 17, 2011 by Antrix after reports about its controversial nature surfaced in the media.
CBI said a deal between Antrix and Devas was fixed in January 2005 for lease of S-Band transponders. However, the then Executive Director of Antrix signed it on behalf of Antrix six months later only after ensuring that Chandrashekhar and Vishwanathan were majority stakeholders in Devas multimedia, which roles they continued 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 had gone in violation of Shankara Committee, which had recommended execution of any such agreement with an Indian company only.
The FIR has also alleged a proposal seeking budgetary support of Rs269 crore for approving design, manufature and launch of GSAT-6/INSAT-4E (PS1) and information about the deal was withheld from the 104th meeting of the Space Commission. The acused public servants and other unknown officials also allegedly suppressed the information about the deal and misled the Union Cabinet about the utilisation of satellite capacity.