New Delhi: Supreme Court has given a big decision in the Devas-Antrix deal case. During the hearing on Monday, January 17, the court dismissed the petition seeking a stay on the cancellation of recognition of the company. After the order of the Supreme Court, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has attacked the Congress. The Finance Minister has accused the Congress of misleading the then cabinet by calling it the mastermind of the scam.
In fact, the Supreme Court has said in its order that Devas Multimedia was created with the connivance of the employees of Antrix Corporation for the purpose of fraud.
The Union Finance Minister said, “The SC gave a comprehensive order; the UPA canceled the deal in 2011. It was a fraudulent deal.” He further said, “Antrix had entered into an agreement with Dewas in 2005 during the UPA government. It was a fraudulent deal. The deal was canceled by the UPA government in 2011.”
Sitharaman said, “In 2011, when the whole thing was quashed, Dewas went to international arbitration, the Indian government never appointed an arbitrator, was reminded to appoint an arbitrator within 21 days, but the government didn’t. Did.”
Attacking the Congress, the Finance Minister said, “There are players of the master game in this, with this order of the Congress and the Supreme Court, we can see that… Now it is the turn of the Congress that how to keep the cabinet in the dark. They should have no moral right to speak about crony capitalism.”
Master game players in this are the Congress & with this SC order we’re able to see that…Now it should be Congress’ turn to answer how cabinet was kept in dark. They should have no moral right to speak about crony capitalism: Finance Min Nirmala Sitharaman on Devas-Antrix issue pic.twitter.com/dpqmgc8au3
– ANI (@ANI) January 18, 2022
What Devas-Antrix Deal Scam?
In 2005, a deal was signed between Devas Multimedia and Antrix Corporation for satellite service. After a few days it was found that this deal could be negotiated on mobile using satellite. Devas Multimedia was a startup at that time and was formed only in 2004. It was built by MD Chandrashekhar, former Scientific Secretary of ISRO. Later in the investigation it was found that the government’s permission was not taken for this deal and use of the satellite. After which in 2011 it was canceled due to forgery charges.
Many questions have been raised about the Dewas-Antrix deal. The first question that is arising is that why was the deal done with Devas Multimedia without doing a thorough investigation? After all, in this deal, the government-owned company Antrix Corporation, which provided ISRO’s products to the outside world, should have been thoroughly investigated. Another question is that when the fraud of Dewas was discovered and the deal was canceled, then why did the government not go to the NCLT against Dewas? In 2015, when the investigation was done by the CBI, the matter came to light.