Bengaluru CBI Court Declares Devas CEO Ramachandran Viswanathan A Fugitive Economic Offender

A special CBI court in Bengaluru recently proclaimed Ramachandran Viswanathan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd, an accused in a money laundering case, as a fugitive economic offender.

Principal Special Judge KL Ashok passed the order on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking to declare Viswanathan as a fugitive economic offender under Section 4 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018, read with Sections 10 and 12.

The Enforcement Directorate had sought to declare Viswanathan as an absconding economic offender as he failed to appear before the trial court. Consequently, Ramachandran Viswanathan’s name has been added to the list of financial criminals such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

In January 2023, the Court had issued a notice to Viswanathan under Section 10 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. Since Viswanathan was residing abroad, a notice was sent to him through the Ministry of External Affairs, as he was not eligible for a notice under Section 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

However, Viswanathan did not attend the hearing on December 12, 2022. Subsequently, the court granted him another opportunity to attend the hearing, rescheduling it for December 26. Regrettably, Viswanathan once again failed to appear for the hearing.

In May 2021, Devas Multimedia was liquidated by the National Company Law Tribunal. The ED has accused Viswanathan and nine others of diverting 85% of Rs 579 crore of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the United States. This investment was received by the startup through a satellite deal with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2005, which was later annulled in 2011, as per the ED’s allegations.