A day earlier, the apex court had upheld the NCLAT order to close Dewas.
Sitharaman said the Indian government will now use the apex court’s decision to oppose the compensation awarded to foreign investors of the company in international courts to “prevent any loss of taxpayer money” in millions of dollars.
Calling the SC’s decision a “comprehensive order”, which had called the Dewas deal “infused with the venom of fraud”, FM Sitharaman directed her attack on the then Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, saying it was “congressive”. for corruption”. and by Congress”.
He accused the then UPA government of abusing power to provide “sensitive S-band spectrum” to a private company as part of the 2005 satellite deal, which was used only for national security purposes.
The Finance Minister said that it took the UPA government more than 6 years to cancel the satellite deal even after the news of manipulation started coming in.
She said, “In 2011, when the whole thing was quashed, Dewas went to international arbitration, the Government of India never appointed an arbitrator. Was reminded to appoint one within 21 days, but the government did so. No appointment was made.
Sitharaman said the Supreme Court order shows how the then UPA government misbehaved as the deal was against national security. It should be the turn of the Congress party to explain how the people of India were cheated by this.
Further, Sitharaman pointed out that the manner in which the deal was done with Dewas was not known to the then Union Cabinet. He said that the manner in which the misleading note was put in the cabinet shows that the affairs of the company were carried out in a fraudulent manner.
The finance minister also said that as per a CAG report, the deal was not even as per the SATCOM policy, adding that “the Modi government is fighting to save the taxpayers’ money who would otherwise have to pay for this reprehensible deal”. Goes.”
Reading out the Supreme Court judgment, Sitharaman said, “Devas brought in a total of Rs 579 crore, but took about 85% out of India, partly for setting up a subsidiary in the US, partly for business support services and litigation.” and now thousands of rupees are being sought as compensation.”
Dewas initiated arbitration in the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) against the cancellation of the deal.
Two separate arbitrations were initiated under the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) by Mauritian investors in Dewas under the India-Mauritius BIT and by Deutsche Telekom, a German company under the India-Germany BIT.
India lost all three disputes and had to pay a total of $1.29 billion in damages.
The damage being claimed by Devas is more than $562.5 million in interest since 2015.
Telecom Dewas Mauritius and Dewas Employees Mauritius have claimed between $93.3 million and $112 million.
Foreign investors, mostly from Mauritius, in Dewas, are now pursuing cases in Canadian courts, French courts and US courts to claim compensation for the cancellation of the deal by confiscation of Air India assets and other Indian government assets. Huh.
As per the January 2005 agreement, ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix had agreed to build, launch and operate two satellites – GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A – and lease 90% of the satellite transponder capacity to Dewas , who planned to use it. Provides hybrid satellite and terrestrial communication services across India.
The deal included 70 MHz of S-band spectrum, valued at Rs 1,000 crore. A media disclosure then claimed that the deal could have caused a loss of over Rs 2 lakh crore to the national exchequer. Soon after this revelation, the then UPA government scrapped the deal in 2011.
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