Charges have also been framed against former Executive Director of Antrix, K R Sridaramurthy and senior officials of Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia, a company founded by former Isro official M.G. Chandrashekar.
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Antrix had earlier been slapped with a fine of about Rs 4,400 crore by the International Arbitration Court for unilaterally terminating the contract with Devas.
The CBI filed an FIR in the case in March a year ago, alleging Devas Multimedia and its owners made wrongful gain through this agreement with Antrix.
Meanwhile, Former G. Madhavan Nair said that the scientists have been made “scapegoats” in the Antrix-Devas case after he was named in the chargesheet by the CBI.
Based on the CBI complaint, the Enforcement Directorate also registered a case against Devas Multimedia to investigate the flow of funds in the company under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The loss to the government exchequer is estimated to be Rs 578 crore, but the investigative agency says their probe is on and the figure might be revised. 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.
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. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) then files a special investigation into the Devas-Antrix deal and other unnamed government officials, as per the report. They continued in that position till 2008-09. It alleges that the Space Commission’s approval was obtained by keeping it in the dark.
The CBI claimed that Devas, with the intention of siphon off the amount from its bank accounts in India, got a subsidiary named Devas USA incorporated in America and a substantial part of the “wrongful” gain was remitted to the offshore company on the pretext of services, salaries etc.
“It is clear that the CBI charge sheet, issued just weeks after Devas and its shareholders’ second resounding victory against the Indian government is a continuation of the government’s campaign against Devas and its shareholders for daring to exercise their legal rights”, Babbio said.
Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, signed a memorandum of understating in 2003 with US-based Forge Advisors to attract investment in digital multimedia services.
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The change in the board, where a United States 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.
