Court gives CBI two months for sanction against ex-DoS official

The CBI was on Thursday given two months' time by a Delhi court to obtain sanction to try former additional secretary in the Department of Space (DoS) in the Devas-Antrix deal case.

The CBI told Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal that it was yet to obtain the sanction to prosecute Veena S. Rao.

The court has posted the matter for hearing on August 5.

On May 1, the CBI had told the court that the sanction to prosecute ex-chairman of ISRO G. Madhavan Nair, former ISRO Director A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao and former Antrix Executive Director K.R. Sridhara Murthi has been received.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet on August 11 last year alleging a loss of Rs 578 crore to the exchequer in the deal.

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

Former Managing Director of US-based Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas Ramachandra Vishwanathan, then Director of Devas M.G. Chandrasekhar, three former directors of Bengaluru-based Devas Multi-media and Murthi 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 position and causing loss to Antrix Corp and ISRO.

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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