Wanting to give a clear message to the corporate world that the government means serious business, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed has said that day-to-day trial in the multi-crore rupee Satyam scam would be the top-most priority, for which his ministry is also talking to CBI.
"We are flagging it as our 100-day priority ... One area of our 100 days priority is that we would like to see appropriate judicial order that would allow day-to-day trial," the new minister told PTI, when asked how soon the people responsible for the scam would be brought to justice.
The estimated Rs 10,000 crore scam was probed among other agencies by SFIO, the investigative agency of the ministry, which has already submitted its report to the government.
On whether he would prefer a separate prosecution by SFIO or it would be jointly with CBI, Khursheed said, "We are assessing everything ... We are in touch with CBI." He added that the government would want to expedite the process.
Besides CBI, the Corporate Affairs Ministry is also consulting the Law Ministry for the prosecution, he said.
When asked if the Satyam case was the tip of the iceberg and there could be more corporate frauds, Khursheed said, "I would call it a symptom of something wrong in the system. You need to treat the system, the root ... Otherwise the symptom may reappear. If I call it a tip, it means I am saying there is an iceberg."
