Govt foils ex-Satyam officials' bid to escape probe

The Government has decided to make all former top executives and board members, including independent directors of Satyam answerable, for the fraud in the company, fearing that some of them might flee the country.

In its petition late last week before the Company Law Board (CLB), which ordered the top functionaries at the company to disclose their assets and not to sell them, the government said "the erstwhile directors and the officers of the company are answerable for the whole of fraud", which was unequivocally admitted to by former Chairman Ramalinga Raju.

Listing all the former executives and independent directors, CFO, Company Secretary and auditors Price Watehouse as the respondents, alongside Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju, the government also submitted that some of them were trying to escape from the country.

"It has come to the notice of the central government that various respondents are either fleeing the country or beyond reach, in order to evade or stall the investigation or the regulatory mechanism put in force by the central government," submitted the government before CLB.

The government also pleaded for Satyam's CFO Srinivas Vadlamani as a party by saying that he had "full control over the operational, financial and policy decisions of the company".

It further submitted that Satyam's former Chairman Ramalinga Raju, MD B Rama Raju, Rammohan Rao Mayanpati, independent directors M Srinivasan, K G Palepu, M Rammohan Rao, V S Raju and T R Prasad failed to discharge their duties.

"The board of directors and other officers, managers and auditors... Failed in proper discharge of their fuduciary duties towards company," submitted the government.