Antrix-Devas deal: ED attaches Rs 3.10 cr assets

New Delhi: The ED said Friday it has attached assets worth Rs 3.10 crore in connection with its money-laundering probe in the Antrix-Devas deal case.

It said a provisional order for attachment, in the form of bank balance in the current account and fixed deposits available with ICICI Bank in Bangalore's Malleswaram, has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The assets are in the name of Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd (DMPL), the agency said in a statement.

DMPL was incorporated in 2004 by a few former employees of the Indian Space Research Organisation and it subsequently entered into an agreement with Antrix Corporation Ltd, a central government company, registered in Bengaluru.

Antrix is a 100 per cent government owned public sector undertaking under the control of ISRO and it functions as its commercial arm. It had signed a deal with Devas in

January 2005 to provide it with crucial S-Band wavelength, which is primarily kept for strategic interests of the country. The ED has filed a money-laundering case on the basis of a CBI FIR.

The CBI case was filed against DMPL and others for illegally entering into an agreement with ISRO/Antrix corporation Ltd by fraudulently representing certain facts and on entering the agreement, collected investments from abroad through criminal conspiracy, it said.

The ED said DMPL had "fraudulently" made a claim that it had the ownership and intellectual property rights to use the technology for delivering multi-media services and entered into an agreement with ISRO/ACL.