Fresh summons issued in Satyam case

A local court today issued fresh summons to former Satyam Computer directors Ram Mynampati and Krishna G Palepu. The summons were issued in a case filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a wing of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, which is investigating the multi-crore Satyam scam.

Mynampati ceased to be the interim chief executive officer of Satyam after the government superseded the board of the information technology company following the accounting fraud. On January 11, 2009, he left for the US, reportedly to address “client issues” even as the police were looking for him.

Meanwhile, the counsels of other directors Mangalam Srinivasan and Vinod K Dham filed petitions for special vakalat, seeking exemption from personal appearance in the court. The court posted the case to January 25 for examination of all the accused.

Srinivasan, Dham and Palepu had been independent directors on the Satyam board when it made an aborted bid to acquire Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, the two companies run by the kin of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju.

SFIO charged the accused of fudging the balance sheets, deceiving shareholders, taking huge benefits and dividends as directors and showing unpaid dividends as paid. In all, the SFIO had filed seven complaints against the accused.