Antrix-Devas deal: All accused granted bail, except three who didn't appear

The agency had filed an FIR on March 16, 2015 against Mr. Nair and others accusing them of facilitating “wrongful” gain of ₹578 crore to private multimedia company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm

Delhi's Special CBI court granted bail to all accused, except three who didn't appear, in Antrix-Devas deal case. The accused include ISRO's former chairman G.Madhavan Nair, A.Bhaskar Narayana Rao (then ISRO Director) and K.R Sridhar Murthy (then Executive Director of Antrix).

The agency had filed an FIR on March 16, 2015 against Mr. Nair and others accusing them of facilitating "wrongful" gain of ₹578 crore to private multimedia company Devas by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO. The probe agency had on August 11, 2016 filed a charge sheet against the accused, alleging they had caused a loss of ₹578 crore to the exchequer by abusing their official position to favour a private company. The case relates to leasing of S-Band, a restricted wavelength of the INSAT satellites to deliver video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones to Devas Multimedia by Antrix.

(With agency inputs)