Madhavan Nair removed from BEL board of directors

In a belated action, defence public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Limited has removed former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair from its Board of Directors as he was barred from holding any government post for his role in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal.

The BEL took this decision at a meeting of its board of directors on Wednesday.

Nair, who was the driving force behind India's maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I, was barred by the Centre in February from holding any government job or position.

"The government of India has removed G Madhavan Nair, independent director, from the board of the company," BEL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

A five-member team that probed the deal between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia had concluded that Nair and three other scientists were responsible for the controversial contract.

The committee, chaired by former Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha, had observed serious lapses of judgement on the part of various officials, and noted that in some cases the actions verged on the point of breach of public trust.