Devas says vendetta by India over CBI case against top officials

Nair says there is no criminal conspiracy and hope to come clean legally

Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd on Friday accused India of retaliating against the satellite firm for asserting its rights to win cases in international tribunals against the government over the cancellation of the satellite leasing deal with Antrix Corp, an arm of India's space agency.

"The charge-sheet is just the latest mala fide act that the Indian government has taken against Devas and its shareholders in retaliation for their exercising their legal rights arising out of the illegal annulment of the Devas-Antrix contract," said Devas's chairman, Lawrence Babbio in a statement.

"It is notable that the charge-sheet has been issued just weeks after the Hague based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal unanimously found that the Indian government unlawfully expropriated the investments of Devas's Mauritius-incorporated shareholders, and that the Indian government's actions denied fair and equitable treatment to those shareholders."

On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges in a CBI court in Delhi against several Isro officials include its former chairman G Madhavan Nair and senior Devas officials including its chief executive Ramachandran Visvanathan. The CBI has cited loss of Rs 578 crore to the Indian exchequer for framing charges against them.

India had cancelled the deal in 2012 citing that the S band spectrum allocated to the two satellites would be used security reasons and not for commercial purposes. Isro had signed the deal with Devas to lease two communication satellites on S band to beam high speed internet on mobile devices, but the contract got caught in the political storm over the 2G telecom scandal, which led to government applying the sovereign right to cancel.

At the same time, there was also a bitter personal duel with K Radhakrishnan, then chairman of Isro and his previous boss G Madhavan Nair on the Devas contract. Nair and three other officials were later banned from holding any government posting.

Nair said the CBI filing charges amounts to witch-hunting and finding scapegoat by those, who have misled the government.

"This matter was investigated by three agencies. They have clarified that this was a useful contract and no loss to the government. In fact, they found only procedural lapses," said Nair. "The legal system in our country is strong. I have faith in that. We are all convinced that there is no criminal conspiracy".

Antrix Corp plans to appeal against two verdicts by international tribunals that had found India to be at fault in the cancellation of the deal. India is liable to pay fine of $672 million if it loses further appeal.

"Since 2011, when India annulled the Devas-Antrix contract, Devas has been subject to a range of unlawful measures from various parts of the Indian government, including the I-T Department and Enforcement Directorate. It is clear that the CBI charge-sheet, issued just weeks after Devas and its shareholders' second resounding victory against the Indian government is a continuation of the government's campaign against Devas and its shareholders for daring to exercise their legal rights," Babbio said.