A CBI special court in Delhi has ordered investigations into the roles played by two former senior Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) officials in the clearances provided for a failed 2005 satellite launch deal between Isro’s Antrix Corp and the startup firm Devas Multimedia.
The court ordered further investigation into the roles of former Isro additional secretary and member of finance, S K Das, and former IAS officer R G Nadadur, who served as a joint secretary and vigilance officer at the Department of Space (DoS) during the finalisation of the Antrix-Devas deal.
The 2005 Antrix-Devas deal is currently the subject of a CBI corruption probe, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) money laundering probe, and a $1.2 billion international compensation dispute between Isro entities and foreign investors in Devas.
The court ordered the probe after former Isro additional secretary Veena S Rao questioned the CBI’s selective naming of officials in the Antrix-Devas corruption probe when several officials were part of the discussions and clearances accorded to the deal. The CBI has named Rao, along with former Isro chairman and DoS secretary G Madhavan Nair and seven former Isro/Devas officials in a 2019 chargesheet.
“To sum up, this court is of the considered opinion that further investigation is required with respect to the role and conduct of Sh S K Das and Sh R G Nadadur as well as qua the recovery of the documents as aforesaid,” the CBI special court judge ruled on September 2.
“It is further clarified that this court is not opining that Sh S K Das and Sh R G Nadadur are criminally involved in the present matter and is merely observing that their role in the entire sequence of events leading to the registration of the present case requires further investigation,” the court observed while granting the CBI two months to probe.
In an application filed before the special court in 2020, Rao had questioned the CBI decision against the arraigning of several ISRO/DoS officials who were aware or complicit in the Antrix Devas deal in the 2004-05 period.
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The former IAS officer sought investigations against S K Das, former additional secretary, DoS; P S Goel, former director, Isro; R G Nadadur, former joint secretary, DoS; S V Ranganath, former additional secretary, DoS; and Ikramullah, former under-secretary.
Rao also sought investigations into the role of former Isro scientist K N Shankara, who headed the Shankara Committee which cleared the private satellite deal; former Isro chairman Dr K Kasturirangan; former member, finance, S Meenakshisundaram; former deputy secretary K S Ramchandra; and former DoS director Dr E V Ramanna Reddy.
The special court noted that the probe against Kasturirangan and Shankara would be infructuous as they had passed away. The special court also did not find reason to pursue a probe against former Karnataka chief secretary Ranganath, the former Isro satellite centre director P S Goel, and others.
In the case of Das and Nadadur, the special court found substance to order the CBI to investigate their roles. In Das’s case, it was contended by the former IAS officer that he was aware of the evolution of the Antrix-Devas agreement from its inception in August 2003 and that a satellite G SAT 6 cleared by the Union Cabinet was meant to be used by Devas Multimedia.
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The retired IAS officer has alleged that Das attended the 58th meeting of the Antrix board of directors held on March 17, 2005, where the Antrix Corp chairman said the firm had signed a deal worth US $ 144 million with M/s Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd for leasing S Band transponders over a period of 12 years.
The special court, while disagreeing with the decision of the CBI to overlook the role played by Das, has stated that he should have pointed out the same for inclusion in a cabinet note. The court has said that the “cabinet note wrongly records the fact that ISRO is already in receipt of several firm expression of interest by service providers for utilization of this satellite capacity on commercial terms even though, there was only one firm ‘Devas’ with whom agreement had already been entered into by Antrix”.
“These are vital lacunas in the investigation conducted by the CBI especially as far as the role and conduct of Sh. S K Das is concerned,” the special court has stated in its order.
In Nadadur’s case, the special court has indicated that he was a member of the Shankara Committee constituted in May 2004 by Nair to examine the technical and financial feasibility of the Antrix-Devas satellite deal. “Whatever the case may be, the investigation is incomplete on this aspect regarding presence of Sh. R G Nadadur in the aforesaid meetings (Shankara Committee),” the court said.
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“The fact that the name & designation of Sh. R. G. Nadadur was inserted in the said cabinet note with a pen later on, itself shows that Sh. R. G. Nadadur was required to be involved in the whole process. Furthermore in all the later cabinet notes, the designation & signature of Sh. R.G. Nadadur is very much present,” the special court has observed.
As the chief vigilance officer at DoS in 2005, it was the duty of the former IAS officer to report the fact that “it had not been mentioned in draft cabinet note which he saw on 21.07.2005 that the transponders of S band satellite G-SAT 6 had already been leased out to Devas…”, the court noted.
The court further observed that “he did not raise any objection in the mentioning of several firm expression of interest by service providers for utilization, in the cabinet note, which may have mislead the Space Minister, the then Hon’ble Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet, in granting the approval for development of satellites”.
“Hence, the role and aforesaid omission of Sh. R.G.Nadadur also needs to be re-investigated,” the special court has stated.
The failed Antrix-Devas satellite deal
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The UPA government annulled the 2005 Antrix-Devas satellite deal in February 2011, citing the requirement of space spectrum allocated for the satellite services of Devas for
security needs. The deal was cancelled after it was cited as a “sweetheart deal” and another instance of corruption under the UPA regime, after the 2G scam.
Under the failed 2005 Antrix-Devas deal, Isro was supposed to lease two communication satellites for 12 years at a cost of Rs 167 crore to Devas Multimedia. The start-up was to provide multimedia services to mobile platforms in India using the space band or S-band transponders on Isro’s GSAT 6 and 6A satellites, built at a cost of Rs 766 crore.
After the NDA government came to power in 2014, the CBI and ED began investigating the deal even as the foreign investors in Devas Multimedia—German telecom major Deutsche Telekom, three Mauritius investors, and Devas Multimedia itself—approached various international tribunals seeking compensation for the failed deal.
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Later, Devas Multimedia was awarded $ 1.2 billion by the International Chamber of Commerce, Deutsche Telekom was awarded a $ 101 million compensation by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Geneva, and the Mauritius investors were awarded a $ 111 million USD by United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in India ordered the liquidation of Devas Multimedia on May 25, 2021, citing fraud in its creation. The NCLT order was upheld by the Supreme Court on January 17, 2022.
Status of legal proceedings in US
On June 5 this year, the US Supreme Court rolled back a reprieve given in 2023 by a US appeals court in the legal battle over the compensation claim of $ 1.2 billion by Devas Multimedia for the failed Antrix satellite deal.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had ruled on August 1, 2023, that Antrix Corp, as an alter ego of India, must have some amount of business in the US to be subjected to the jurisdiction of US courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the US.
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The August 2023 order of the appeals court was expected to end efforts by Devas Multimedia to enforce in the United States a $ 1.2 bn compensation award made by an arbitration tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce on September 14, 2015. The award had been confirmed by the US court for the Western District of Washington on October 27, 2020.
Following a plea by Devas Multimedia against the August 2023 order, the US Supreme Court had, in an order dated June 5, 2025, ruled that the appeals court had erred in its ruling that a firm must have some minimum business in the US for it to be liable to be sued in US courts.
The Antrix Corp counsel had argued in the US Supreme Court that only courts in India could deal with the matter according to the original agreement and that the Supreme Court of India had already set aside the ICC arbitration award made in favour of Devas Multimedia.