Antrix-Devas case: Former Isro chief Madhavan Nair summoned as accused

A special court passed the directions after taking cognisance of the CBI charge sheet filed in the matter

A special court today summoned former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair 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 I, 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 here on December 23.

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.

The agency had filed a FIR on March 16, 2015, against Nair and others accusing them of facilitating "wrongful" gain of Rs 578 crore to private multi-media company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro.

The probe agency had on August 11 last year filed a charge sheet against the accused, alleging they had caused a loss of Rs 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.