Will a probe into funds flowing into the account of a retired bureaucrat whose name figures in the inquiry report submitted by former CVC, Pratyush Sinha, throw up disquieting questions about the controversial Antrix-Devas contract for allotment of transponders on board two satellites?
Sources in ISRO said the fact that humungous funds stashed away in the bank account of the retired officer, which were detected by the CBI, only add credence to questions about the haste with which the contract was cancelled.
There were murmurs over the role of certain big-ticket telecom firms and powerful politicians in forcing the hand of the Union government to annul the $ 300 million contract.
Perhaps, some of these details were known to former chairman G. Madhavan Nair and three former technocrats who were black-listed by the Department of Space (DoS) and could make it to the public domain, the sources added.
ISRO scientists have asked how their former colleagues could continue to be accused of signing a contract which reportedly caused a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the exchequer even after the CAG clarified in February 2011 that only 'preliminary queries' were raised during the audit of DoS.
“Every time people talk about the loss they do not take into cognizance that the contract itself was cancelled even before the launch of GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A spacecraft,” they said.
Radhakrishnan refutes allegations
Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), DR K. Radhakrishnan, on Monday refuted the charge by his predecessor, G. Madhavan Nair, that no enquiry was conducted into the findings of an official report on the Antrix-Devas deal. “It (the enquiry) was done”, Dr Radhakrishnan, said.
Asked why only “conclusions and recommendations” and not the full report was made public, he said: “Because it was not essential. That’s the only thing. Some things are not to be given”.
On whether he felt sorry for four former technocrats who were blacklisted by the Department of Space (DoS), he said “I should not say anything about it. I will keep quiet.”
