Ex-ISRO chief should be heard: Law Ministry

CNN-IBN | 01-Mar 11:14 AM

New Delhi: There is a new twist in the stand-off between the government and space scientists over the Antrix-Devas deal. Sources have told CNN-IBN the Law Ministry's report says that a formal chargesheet should have been served to the four former ISRO scientists blacklisted by the government.

Law Ministry sources have told CNN-IBN that the scientists including former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair should be given a chance to put forward their side of the story.

However, even as Madhavan Nair slammed the government, saying that it failed to list the reasons for blacklisting him and three other scientists, the Law Ministry report says that the information was posted on the the website and that was adequate action.

Earlier, Madhavan Nair hit out at the government for failing to list out reasons for blacklisting him and three other scientists. Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN, Nair said he was disgusted with the Department of Space as he had not been told on what grounds action had been taken.

He also said he would continue with his fight for justice and would appeal to a higher authority.

"They have sent a reply, which does not have any substantial matter on the reasons for blacklisting. They have not revealed any information citing some clause, I just can't understand. So it is only as good as a blank paper. This is in response to the RTI query, which I had sent almost a month ago," he said.

The deal between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix and Devas Multimedia involved the allotment of the scarce S-band spectrum, the same radio frequencies used for cordless landlines and the bluetooth on phones.

The deal was scrapped in 2011 when reports surfaced that ISRO had sold the spectrum worth almost Rs 2 lakh crore for just Rs 1,000 crore.

The government set up two probe panels soon after which the government blacklisted former ISRO chief Madhavan Nair and three others.

Nair blamed ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan for the move, following which the reports were made public.

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