Scientists made "scapegoats" in Antrix Devas case: Madhavan Nair

August 11, 2016 22:58

Former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday said scientists have been made "scapegoats" in the Antrix-Devas case after he was named in the chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Nair said he and others who have been named as an accused in the chargesheet in connection with the controversial deal have done nothing wrong and blamed the then United Progressive Alliance government for the "hasty" decision to cancel the agreement with Devas Multimedia over which India lost an arbitration case in an international tribunal in Hague recently.

The eminent scientist said this shortly after he along with some scientists and officials were charged by CBI under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Nair said he failed to understand on what basis the case has been filed.

Defending the decision to lease coveted spectrum of INSAT sattelite to Devas Multimedia, Nair said in company to company agreement, the government is not kept in the loop and this practice is still continuing.

He said over a dozen such agreements were signed by Antrix with different companies providing similar services.

"The leasing of transponder capacity has been the primary role of Antrix/DOS and we have established in that time frame more than a dozen such agreements with major players like Tata Sky, Sun Tv etc who hired transponder capacity from us. This hiring of transponder capacity by Devas was on same lines, it was no way different," Nair said.

The former secretary, space department said ISRO never bothered about what business gains any of these companies make out of their using the transponder.

On the CBI chargesheet, Nair said he did not have detailed information about but from what he heard it was related to Antrix-Devas contract, established in 2005, and they were trying to see how Devas made money by selling their shares at such high value and so on.

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