Antrix-Devas case was a fraud on people of India-Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hits out at the UPA government for the Antrix Devas issue. Addressing a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday she said the Supreme Court order upholding liquidation of the Devas Multimedia is a comprehensive one. The Congress-led UPA government got cancelled this deal in 2011. “Antrix appeared in agreement with Devas in 2005 during the UPA government. It was a fraud deal. Fraud on people of India. Fraud against the country,” she said.The FM said Supreme Court order shows how the UPA government indulged in wrong practices. “The Antrix-Devas deal was against national security. It should be the Congress party's turn to tell how this kind of fraud was perpetrated on people of India,” she added.

Sitharaman said this kind of selling of primary endowments like wavelengths, satellites or spectrum band, giving it away to private parties and making money from private parties and making a deal out if it marks the feature of the Congress governments. In 2011, when the whole thing was cancelled, Devas went to international arbitration. The government of India never appointed an arbitrator, was reminded to appoint arbitrator within 21 days, but the government did not appoint, she added. 

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the winding up of Devas Multimedia saying," it is a case of fraud of a huge magnitude which cannot be brushed under the carpet, as a private list". A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian dismissed the appeal filed by Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd and said when two forums namely NCLT and NCLAT have recorded concurrent findings on facts, it is not open to this Court to reappreciate evidence. The judgment is the latest chapter in a controversial deal during the previous UPA regime, when, in 2005, Devas entered into an agreement with Antrix, the private sector arm of ISRO to provide high-speed data services using S-band satellite spectrum from Antrix. The deal was terminated amid allegations of corruption by the Manmohan Singh government in 2011.