Click to play videoNew Delhi: A Maharashtra politician claims the Government and the market regulator ignored his warning that Satyam’s former chief B Ramalinga Raju and his family members were operating fictitious bank accounts.
Ramdas Athawale, the Republican Party of India MP from Maharashtra, claims his warning was unheeded because of Raju’s political connections.
Athawale says he wrote letters to the Prime Minister’s Office and the chief of the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2003, claiming that an Income Tax department investigation had traced several benami bank accounts to Satyam’s promoters and their relatives.
Athawale letter to SEBI claims that Satyam's promoters had deposits worth Rs 20 crore in banks in and around Hyderabad without proper documentation.
Athawale alleges nothing was done because N Chandrababu Naidu, who was then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was shielding Raju. He claims Satyam tried to block Income Tax officials from investigating further.
Authorities allegedly buckled under political pressure and didn’t probe the allegations. “Atal Behari Vajpayee and Chandrababu Naidu had a good relationship and I think because of Naidu's influence the investigation was blocked,” he alleges.
Naidu denies favouring Satyam and says he had no knowledge of Athawale’s allegations when he was Chief Minister. “Nobody brought this (allegations against Satyam) to my notice and I didn't know. Nobody asked me for such favours during my tenure,” he says.
The SEBI is now investigating Satyam after Raju, the company’s founder-chairperson, confessed to a Rs 7,000-crore fraud in the accounts. No probe has been ordered into allegations of Satyam's political nexus though.
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