Antrix-Devas deal: Ex-ISRO chief summoned as accused

Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and others as accused in the Antrix-Devas deal case were summoned by a special court on Saturday.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal directed Nair, A Bhaskar Narayana Rao, the then Director in ISRO, K R Sridhar Murthy, the then Executive Director of Antrix, former Additional Secretary in the Department of Space (DoS) Veena S Rao and others to appear before the court here on December 23, reported PTI.

The court passed the directions after taking cognisance of the CBI chargesheet filed in the matter.

The CBI has also booked former MD of US-based Forge Advisors and Devas CEO Ramachandra Vishwanathan for criminal comspiracy along with three other former directors of the firm. All four have been accused of conspiracy to cause undue gains by abusing their official position and causing loss to Antrix Corp and ISRO.

The CBI in March 2015 had filed an FIR against Madhavan Nair and his accomplices.

The probe agency had alleged that through the deal, ISRO's commercial arm Antrix had facilitated illegal profits worth Rs 578 crore to a private multi-media company, Devas. The 2005 deal also saw an early exit of Nair from the post of ISRO chairman, as he headed Antrix's governing council then.

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