'Fraud against country': FM Sitharaman slams UPA over Antrix-Devas deal

Supreme Court verdict to be highlighted in international courts, says FM

The Antrix-Devas matter was a fraud against the country, and the previous Congress administration should explain how the fraud was perpetrated, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Devas, said the Finance Minister, claimed to own a technology that did not exist. Based on this, an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) was signed, Sitharaman said, adding, “The fraud began there.”

The United Progressive Alliance government took six years to cancel the agreement that Antrix entered into with Devas in 2005, she said. “The Congress allowed blatant selling of Government of India’s resources for a pittance,” Sitharaman