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A special CBI court in Bengaluru designated Ramachandran Viswanathan, CEO of Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd and an accused in a money laundering case, a fugitive economic offender on Thursday.

The ruling was issued in response to a request by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to declare Viswanathan a fugitive economic offender under Section 4 read with Sections 10 and 12 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018.

Because Viswanathan did not appear in court, the ED sought to designate him as an exiled economic offender. Ramachandran Viswanathan has been added to the list of financial criminals that includes Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

Viswanathan was served with a notice under Section 10 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act in January 2023.

Viswanathan was not served with a notice under Section 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code because he was living abroad. Instead, he received a notice from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Viswanathan, however, did not appear for the hearing on December 12, 2022. As a result, the court gave him another chance to attend the hearing, setting it for December 26. Unfortunately, Viswanathan failed to appear for the hearing yet again.

The National Company Law Tribunal liquidated Devas Multimedia in May 2021. The ED has charged Viswanathan and nine others with diverting 85% of 579 crores in foreign direct investment (FDI) to the United States.

According to ED, the firm acquired this money as a consequence of a satellite arrangement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2005. However, the satellite agreement was terminated in 2011.

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