The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached ₹80 crore in the Antrix-Devas Multimedia money-laundering case.
The ED searched the premises of the Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia on January 23 and then recorded the statements of company director (finance) Ranganathan Mohan, founder director Desaraju Venugopal and former director D. Nataraj. “The said directors agreed to have committed the offence. The two other directors involved in the crime are Ramachandran Viswanathan and M. Chandrasekhar, who are in the U.S.,” an ED official said.
The sum of ₹79.76 crore, attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, was with the ISRO as the upfront capacity reservation fee and in mutual funds and bank deposits.
The money laundering case is based on the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Devas Multimedia and others. The CBI has also filed a charge sheet against the accused, alleging that the company had illegally entered into an agreement with the ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation Ltd. After the agreement was finalised, the company received investment from abroad, allegedly as part of a criminal conspiracy. “Devas Multimedia was incorporated on December 17, 2004. On January 28, 2005, it falsely claimed to have the intellectual property rights to use the technology for delivering the multimedia services in India under the agreement with ISRO-Antrix,” the official said.
Conspiracy case
The ED says some staff of the ISRO and Antrix Corporation also conspired with Devas Multimedia for entering into the agreement. “On the strength of the agreement, Devas Multimedia raised ₹579.07 crore in foreign investment. Devas also incorporated its subsidiary company in the United States in the name of Devas Multimedia America Inc., and from the overseas funds, ₹76.19 crore was transferred to it as investment,” the official said.
An additional ₹180.77 crore was transferred to the subsidiary company under the pretext of providing business support services and another ₹230.11 crore was spent as legal fee, and a major portion of the funds was transferred to the U.S. on the pretext of legal fee payment, the ED says.
The CBI and the ED allege that the deal between Devas Multimedia and Antrix Corporation was illegal as Devas Multimedia did not have any technology or intellectual property right to deliver the multimedia services.
