A special court on September 16 summoned ISRO’s former chairman G. Madhavan Nair and others as accused in the Antrix-Devas deal case.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal directed Mr. Nair, A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao (then Director in ISRO), K.R. Sridhar Murthy (then Executive Director of Antrix), former Additional Secretary in the Department of Space Veena S. Rao and others to appear before the court in New Delhi on December 23.
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The court passed the directions after taking cognisance of the CBI charge sheet filed in the matter. The CBI had earlier informed the court that sanction to prosecute the former public servants had been obtained from the authorities concerned.
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The agency filed an FIR on March 16, 2015 against Mr. Nair and others accusing them of facilitating “wrongful” gain of ₹578 crore to private multimedia company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO.
The probe agency had on August 11, 2016 filed a charge sheet against the accused, alleging they had caused a loss of ₹578 crore to the exchequer by abusing their official position to favour a private company.
The case relates to leasing of S-Band, a restricted wavelength of the INSAT satellites to deliver video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones to Devas Multimedia by Antrix.
