Govt seizes Satyam documents

A team of government officials investigating the Rs 7,800-crore Satyam fraud seized the documents from the premises of the company and its record office in Hyderabad.

"The procedure of seizure was on till five in the morning," Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta told reporters here today.

The government, he said, has also rushed an eight-member team to Hyderabad to investigate the accounts of eight subsidiary companies of IT major Satyam Computer Services, whose founder B Ramalinga Raju admitted doctoring the accounts and presenting a false picture and resigned as chairman on Wednesday.

The eight companies, against which the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has ordered inspection yesterday, include Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure. Following the disclosure, the MCA has asked the RoC Hyderabad to investigate the company, while market regulator Sebi also ordered a probe.

"After obtaining judicial order from the magistrate in Hyderabad, the Registrar of Companies, in coordination with market regulator Sebi, went to the office of Satyam and seized the documents from its premises and the record office of the company," Gupta said.

The minister had earlier said that the matter would be referred to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a wing of the government that investigates grave corporate offenses.