NEW DELHI: The CBI informed a special court on Monday that it has received sanction to prosecute three Isro officials accused in the Devas-Antrix deal case, including former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair, former Isro director A Bhaskar Narayana Rao and former Antrix executive director K R Sridhara Murthi.

Former MD of US-based Forge Advisors and Devas CEO Ramachandra Vishwanathan, former Devas director M G Chandrasekhar and three other former directors of the firm have also been booked for criminal conspiracy intending to cause undue gains by abusing their official position and causing loss to Antrix Corp and Isro.

In an FIR against Nair and his accomplices in March 2015, CBI had alleged that through the deal, Isro’s commercial arm Antrix had facilitated wrongful gain worth Rs 578 crore to private multi-media company Devas. The deal, which was finalised in 2005, also saw an early exit of Nair as Isro chairman, as he headed Antrix’s governing council then.

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 by Antrix. The next hearing will be on June 1.

