Isro to release reports on Antrix-Devas deal

Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), K Radhakrishnan, on Tuesday said he would soon release reports of the two committees set up by the government on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal.

In a brief statement on Tuesday, Radhakrishnan, also the secretary of the Department of Space, said they were in the process of getting the necessary clearances for releasing the reports. He had been accused by former Isro chief G Madhavan Nair of misleading the government and pursuing a "personal agenda".

The government had set up a review committee on February 10 last year with B K Chaturvedi and Roddam Narasimha as members. Another five-member team, headed by former Central Vigilance commissioner Pratyush Sinha, was set up on May 31, 2011, to examine the deal and identify the acts of omission and commission by government officials.

The two committees had submitted their reports last week and the government banned Nair and three other scientists — A Bhaskarnarayana, former scientific secretary in Isro, K N Shankara, former director, Isro Satellite Centre and K R Sridharamurthi, former executive director of Antrix — from holding any government jobs or any membership in a government committee in the wake of alleged irregularities in allocation of scarce S-band spectrum to a private firm.

The minister of state in the prime minister's office, V Narayanasamy, meanwhile, sought to douse the controversy over his reported comments, saying government holds all of them in "high esteem".

"He (Nair) has been doing very good service when he was holding chairmanship of Isro, Space Commission and also Antrix corporation," he said. Narayanasamy had reportedly said the government decision was taken to send a strong message to the scientific community that no wrongdoing would be tolerated.

Meanwhile, Nair in a letter to the prime minister welcomed the move to release the reports and said this should be done at the earliest. "I welcome the move. The reports must be released fast and I am confident that truth will prevail," agency reports quoted him as saying. "There is nothing related to Defence or anything. So, better to put the whole document into public domain," Nair said.