Antrix-Devas deal: Court grants bail to former ISRO Chairman

A court here on Saturday granted bail to former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair and others after they appeared before it in the Antrix-Devas deal case.

Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann granted bail to Nair, then ISRO Director A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao and then Antrix Executive Director K.R. Sridhara Murthi asking them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of like amount each.

The accused appeared before the court in pursuance to summons issued against them in September.

The court directed them not to leave the country without permission and not to tamper with evidence in the case.

The court allowed former Additional Secretary in the Department of Space Veena S. Rao's plea seeking exemption from personal appearance due to a public meeting.

A chargesheet was filed on August 11, 2016 against former ISRO Chairman Nair, Veena S. Rao, Bhaskar Narayana Rao and others for causing a loss of Rs 578 crore to the exchequer in the Devas-Antrix deal.

The deal was inked between private multimedia company Devas and Antrix, which is the commercial arm of the Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Former Managing Director of US-based Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas Ramachandra Vishwanathan and then Director of Devas M.G. Chandrasekhar and three former directors of Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia were also chargesheeted.

The CBI accused them of hatching a criminal conspiracy with an intent to cause undue gains to themselves or others by abusing their official positions and causing loss to Antrix Corporation and ISRO.

During 2004-2011, the then Executive Director of Antrix Corporation in alleged criminal conspiracy with both advisors of the US-based company and others gave rights for the delivery of video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones via S-Band through the GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites and terrestrial systems in India to the company based in Bengaluru in violation of the guidelines pertaining to leasing of INSAT capacity.

A case was registered against the accused on March 16, 2015.

The Antrix-Devas deal saw an early exit of Nair as ISRO Chairman since he was the head of Antrix governing council when the deal was finalised in January 2005.

--IANS

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