New Delhi: A special court on Saturday summoned G. Madhavan Nair, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), and others as accused in the Antrix-Devas deal case.
Special judge Virender Kumar Goyal directed Nair, A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao, the then director in Isro, K. R. Sridhar Murthy, the then executive director of Antrix, former additional secretary in the department of space (DoS) Veena S. Rao and others to appear before the court in New Delhi on 23 December.
The court passed the directions after taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 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.
The agency had filed an first information report (FIR) on 16 March 2015 against Nair and others accusing them of facilitating “wrongful” gain of Rs578 crore to private multimedia company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro. The probe agency had on 11 August 2016 filed a charge sheet against the accused, alleging they had caused a loss of Rs578 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.