A CBI particular court docket in Delhi has ordered investigations into the roles performed by two former senior Indian House Analysis Organisation (Isro) officers within the clearances offered for a failed 2005 satellite tv for pc launch deal between Isro’s Antrix Corp and the startup agency Devas Multimedia.
The court docket ordered additional investigation into the roles of former Isro extra secretary and member of finance, S Okay Das, and former IAS officer R G Nadadur, who served as a joint secretary and vigilance officer on the Division of House (DoS) in the course of the finalisation of the Antrix-Devas deal.
The 2005 Antrix-Devas deal is presently the topic of a CBI corruption probe, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) cash laundering probe, and a $1.2 billion worldwide compensation dispute between Isro entities and international traders in Devas.
The court docket ordered the probe after former Isro extra secretary Veena S Rao questioned the CBI’s selective naming of officers within the Antrix-Devas corruption probe when a number of officers had been a part of the discussions and clearances accorded to the deal. The CBI has named Rao, together with former Isro chairman and DoS secretary G Madhavan Nair and 7 former Isro/Devas officers in a 2019 chargesheet.
“To sum up, this court docket is of the thought of opinion that additional investigation is required with respect to the function and conduct of Sh S Okay Das and Sh R G Nadadur in addition to qua the restoration of the paperwork as aforesaid,” the CBI particular court docket decide dominated on September 2.
“It’s additional clarified that this court docket is just not opining that Sh S Okay Das and Sh R G Nadadur are criminally concerned within the current matter and is merely observing that their function in the whole sequence of occasions resulting in the registration of the current case requires additional investigation,” the court docket noticed whereas granting the CBI two months to probe.
In an utility filed earlier than the particular court docket in 2020, Rao had questioned the CBI determination in opposition to the arraigning of a number of ISRO/DoS officers who had been conscious or complicit within the Antrix Devas deal within the 2004-05 interval.
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The previous IAS officer sought investigations in opposition to S Okay Das, former extra secretary, DoS; P S Goel, former director, Isro; R G Nadadur, former joint secretary, DoS; S V Ranganath, former extra secretary, DoS; and Ikramullah, former under-secretary.
Rao additionally sought investigations into the function of former Isro scientist Okay N Shankara, who headed the Shankara Committee which cleared the personal satellite tv for pc deal; former Isro chairman Dr Okay Kasturirangan; former member, finance, S Meenakshisundaram; former deputy secretary Okay S Ramchandra; and former DoS director Dr E V Ramanna Reddy.
The particular court docket famous that the probe in opposition to Kasturirangan and Shankara can be infructuous as they’d handed away. The particular court docket additionally didn’t discover motive to pursue a probe in opposition to former Karnataka chief secretary Ranganath, the previous Isro satellite tv for pc centre director P S Goel, and others.
Within the case of Das and Nadadur, the particular court docket discovered substance to order the CBI to analyze their roles. In Das’s case, it was contended by the previous IAS officer that he was conscious of the evolution of the Antrix-Devas settlement from its inception in August 2003 and {that a} satellite tv for pc G SAT 6 cleared by the Union Cupboard was meant for use by Devas Multimedia.
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The retired IAS officer has alleged that Das attended the 58th assembly of the Antrix board of administrators held on March 17, 2005, the place the Antrix Corp chairman stated the agency had signed a deal value US $ 144 million with M/s Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd for leasing S Band transponders over a interval of 12 years.
The particular court docket, whereas disagreeing with the choice of the CBI to miss the function performed by Das, has acknowledged that he ought to have identified the identical for inclusion in a cupboard word. The court docket has stated that the “cupboard word wrongly information the truth that ISRO is already in receipt of a number of agency expression of curiosity by service suppliers for utilization of this satellite tv for pc capability on industrial phrases although, there was just one agency ‘Devas’ with whom settlement had already been entered into by Antrix”.
“These are important lacunas within the investigation carried out by the CBI particularly so far as the function and conduct of Sh. S Okay Das is anxious,” the particular court docket has acknowledged in its order.
In Nadadur’s case, the particular court docket has indicated that he was a member of the Shankara Committee constituted in Might 2004 by Nair to look at the technical and monetary feasibility of the Antrix-Devas satellite tv for pc deal. “Regardless of the case could also be, the investigation is incomplete on this side concerning presence of Sh. R G Nadadur within the aforesaid conferences (Shankara Committee),” the court docket stated.
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“The truth that the title & designation of Sh. R. G. Nadadur was inserted within the stated cupboard word with a pen in a while, itself reveals that Sh. R. G. Nadadur was required to be concerned in the entire course of. Moreover in all of the later cupboard notes, the designation & signature of Sh. R.G. Nadadur could be very a lot current,” the particular court docket has noticed.
Because the chief vigilance officer at DoS in 2005, it was the responsibility of the previous IAS officer to report the truth that “it had not been talked about in draft cupboard word which he noticed on 21.07.2005 that the transponders of S band satellite tv for pc G-SAT 6 had already been leased out to Devas…”, the court docket famous.
The court docket additional noticed that “he didn’t elevate any objection within the mentioning of a number of agency expression of curiosity by service suppliers for utilization, within the cupboard word, which can have mislead the House Minister, the then Hon’ble Prime Minister and the Union Cupboard, in granting the approval for growth of satellites”.
“Therefore, the function and aforesaid omission of Sh. R.G.Nadadur additionally must be re-investigated,” the particular court docket has acknowledged.
The failed Antrix-Devas satellite tv for pc deal
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The UPA authorities annulled the 2005 Antrix-Devas satellite tv for pc deal in February 2011, citing the requirement of house spectrum allotted for the satellite tv for pc providers of Devas for
safety wants. The deal was cancelled after it was cited as a “sweetheart deal” and one other occasion of corruption underneath the UPA regime, after the 2G rip-off.
Underneath the failed 2005 Antrix-Devas deal, Isro was speculated to lease two communication satellites for 12 years at a value of Rs 167 crore to Devas Multimedia. The beginning-up was to offer multimedia providers to cell platforms in India utilizing the house band or S-band transponders on Isro’s GSAT 6 and 6A satellites, constructed at a value of Rs 766 crore.
After the NDA authorities got here to energy in 2014, the CBI and ED started investigating the deal even because the international traders in Devas Multimedia—German telecom main Deutsche Telekom, three Mauritius traders, and Devas Multimedia itself—approached varied worldwide tribunals looking for compensation for the failed deal.
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Later, Devas Multimedia was awarded $ 1.2 billion by the Worldwide Chamber of Commerce, Deutsche Telekom was awarded a $ 101 million compensation by the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration in Geneva, and the Mauritius traders had been awarded a $ 111 million USD by United Nations Fee on Worldwide Commerce Regulation.
The Nationwide Firm Regulation Tribunal (NCLT) in India ordered the liquidation of Devas Multimedia on Might 25, 2021, citing fraud in its creation. The NCLT order was upheld by the Supreme Courtroom on January 17, 2022.
Standing of authorized proceedings in US
On June 5 this yr, the US Supreme Courtroom rolled again a reprieve given in 2023 by a US appeals court docket within the authorized battle over the compensation declare of $ 1.2 billion by Devas Multimedia for the failed Antrix satellite tv for pc deal.
The US Courtroom of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had dominated on August 1, 2023, that Antrix Corp, as an alter ego of India, should have some quantity of enterprise within the US to be subjected to the jurisdiction of US courts underneath the International Sovereign Immunities Act of the US.
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The August 2023 order of the appeals court docket was anticipated to finish efforts by Devas Multimedia to implement in the US a $ 1.2 bn compensation award made by an arbitration tribunal of the Worldwide Chamber of Commerce on September 14, 2015. The award had been confirmed by the US court docket for the Western District of Washington on October 27, 2020.
Following a plea by Devas Multimedia in opposition to the August 2023 order, the US Supreme Courtroom had, in an order dated June 5, 2025, dominated that the appeals court docket had erred in its ruling {that a} agency should have some minimal enterprise within the US for it to be liable to be sued in US courts.
The Antrix Corp counsel had argued within the US Supreme Courtroom that solely courts in India may take care of the matter in accordance with the unique settlement and that the Supreme Courtroom of India had already put aside the ICC arbitration award made in favour of Devas Multimedia.