CBI today questioned former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair in connection with the Antrix-Devas case. The case was registered by the agency for probing alleged 578 crore rupees wrongful gain to a private multi-media company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO. Mr Nair was summoned to the CBI headquarters in New Delhi this morning.
According to reports he was asked about the details of the contract signed between Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia Private Limited on January 28, 2005 during his tenure as chairman of ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space. The Antrix-Devas deal had seen early exit of Mr Nair as Chairman of ISRO as he was the Chairman of the Governing Council of Antrix when the deal was finalised.
CBI had registered a case last year and carried out searches at the premises of Devas Limited as well as the then Executive Director of Antrix K R Sridhara Murthi in Bengaluru.
An FIR was lodged against Murthi, M G Chandrasekhar and R Vishwanathan of Forge Advisors, Devas Multi-media Private Limited and unnamed officials of Antrix, ISRO and Department of Space in a designated court in Bengaluru.
It is alleged that the accused people 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.–Agencies