S-band scam at Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO)

Using  insider knowledge of what ISRO can achieve at a throwaway price by targeting customer specific satellite,a large chunk of S-band spectrum was bought by for a throw away amount by Devas Multimedia — a venture founded in 2004 at the initiative of former officials of the Indian space programme and involving foreign investors. In July 2008, they even sold a 17 per cent stake to Deutsche Telecom AG for $ 75 million (around Rs. 318 crore at the time) and had unbridled optimism for exponential growth.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was on the case despite the bureaucratic hurdles placed in its path. Among the concerns registered by the CAG in its process of enquiry were the following: S-band spectrum was being given away without inviting competitive bids; organisational control systems were not followed; the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet, and the Space Commission were not properly informed about the contract details; public resources were being diverted to building two customer-specific satellites; and the contract terms deviated from the terms of previous contracts entered into by ISRO and Antrix.

CAG suspects a scandal in the allocation of S-band spectrum and is reportedly investigating losses worth Rs 2 lakh crore in the scam. Department of Space and ISRO are under the scanner over the S-band spectrum. The alleged scam is related to a deal between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corp and Devas Multimedia. ISRO is accused of allocating to Devas 70 Megahertz of scarce S-band spectrum for a 20-year period. The CAG was alerted because unlike in earlier contracts, ISRO placed no restrictions on Devas Multimedia for onward leasing of spectrum, which means the company could make huge amounts of money by sub-leasing its privileges.

The loss due to this deal between ISRO and Devas Multimedia has been estimated to be about Rs 2 lakh crore. Deal includes custom made two-communication satellites (GSat-6 and GSat-6A) and 10 transponders will be used for commercial purposes. Department of Space comes directly under the Prime Minister. This is just not loss of revenue to the Government of India exchequer; this is a rare spectrum, that’s a national asset.

The Fallout

The most striking fallout was the action taken against Madhavan Nair, Sridhar Murthi and two other scientists, A Bhaskaranarayana, former Scientific Secretary in ISRO, and K N Shankara, former director in ISRO Satellite Centre, in 2012. The four — all of them had retired by then — were barred from taking any government position in future.

Also, a full-time chairman-cum-managing director was appointed at Antrix. (The ISRO chief was thus far also the Antrix chief) The Satellite Communications and Navigations Programme Office was restructured into three separate wings. An extra slot for a non-ISRO scientist was created in the Space Commission.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth nearly Rs 80 crore of Devas Multimedia Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), saying three directors of the satellite services provider had admitted to criminal conspiracy against India's space agency over the alleged deal to lease a satellite. The central agency said it had recorded the statements of three Devas officials — Ranganathan Mohan, director (Finance), Desaraju Venugopal, founder-director and D Nataraj, former director — when it searched the premises of company in Bengaluru last month. It also alleged that two directors of the firm— Ramachandran Viswanathan and M Chandrasekhar, were in the US.

CASE FILE
2005
Jan 28: Antrix, Devas sign deal

2009
Oct: Space Commission approves G-SAT6A; K Radhakrishnan takes over as ISRO chairman
Dec 8: ISRO constitutes BN Suresh committee to review agreement

2010
June 6: Suresh committee submits report
July 2: Space Commission recommends termination of deal

2011
Feb, May: Government sets up B K Chaturvedi and Pratyush Sinha committees
Sep 2: Chaturvedi committee submits report

2012
Jan 13: Madhavan Nair, 3 others, barred from government jobs
Feb 23: Delhi HC tells govt not to take ‘coercive steps’ against Devas

2013
June: Arbitration begins; Devas claims $ 1.6 billion in damages

2015

Sept 29: Arbitration panel asks ISRO to pay Devas Rs 4,400 crore

2016

Aug 12:CBI files chargesheet against ISRO ex-chief Madhavan Nair

2017
Mar 1: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth nearly Rs 80 crore of Devas Multimedia Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)