The Rajya Sabha during Question Hour on Thursday saw a major uproar over the Satyam issue with some members accusing the Andhra Pradesh government of not giving the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) team a free hand to carry out its investigation against the accused.
In response, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “I will not comment [on the matter] since the investigation is going on”. However in a notable step, the CBI has been brought in to take over the probe which is currently being handled by the Andhra Pradesh CID. “The CBI will investigate into the criminality of the matter,” Mukherjee said in Rajya Sabha today.
The Satyam scam has been the cynosure of attention after Ramalinga Raju admitted to inflating its balance sheet on January 7.
Opposition leaders in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly have accused the Rajasekhara Reddy government of trying to shield the under-arrest Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju from SEBI interrogation.
The SEBI team had been trying to interrogate Raju for long but various courts rejected its application on technical grounds — that they did not have the jurisdiction. The regulator finally got permission from the Supreme Court to interrogate the Raju brothers on February 3, even as Raju had been arrested as early as on January 9.
Reports have also said the AP government awarded various projects to Maytas Infra — also promoted by the Raju family and currently under authorities’ scanner — without following protocol.
Recently, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu also accused the government of delaying a CBI probe in the matter.
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