BANGALORE: Seeking to fend of attacks on his credentials in the ISRO row, the Space body's chief K Radhakrishnan today said probe reports on Antrix-Devas deal that led to punitive action against his predecessor G Madhavan Nair and three fellow space scientists will be released after getting due clearance.
Breaking his silence on the controversy, Radhakrishnan in a brief statement said the department of space(DoS) was in the process of getting necessary clearances for releasing reports of the High Powered Review Committee and the High Level Team formed to examine various aspects of the Antrix-Devas agreement of January 2005.
Nair welcomed the move to release the reports and said this should be done fast. "I welcome the move. The reports must be released fast and I am confident that truth will prevail," he said.
"There is nothing related to defence or anything. So, better to put the whole document into public domain", Nair told PTI here.
Radhakrishnan, also the DoS secretary, was accused by Nair of misleading the Government and pursuing a "personal agenda" after the former Isro boss and the three scientists were barred from holding any government posts on the basis of the two reports in the wake of alleged irregularities in allocation of scarce S-band spectrum to a private firm.
The minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy meanwhile sought to douse the controversy over his reported comments targetting Nair and the other three scientists, saying Government holds all of them in "high esteem.".
"As far as the four scientists are concerned we hold all our scientists in high esteem, especially Madhavan Nair. He (Nair) has been doing very good service when he was holding chairman of ISRO, Space Commission and also Antrix corporation," he said.
Narayanasamy had reportedly said the government decision was taken to send a strong message to the scientific community that no wrongdoing would be tolerated. The Minister's comments came while defending the punitive action.