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New Delhi, Feb. 17: The Centre today moved a petition before the Company Law Board seeking to supersede the board of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, the sister companies linked to scam-scarred Satyam Computer Services.
The move came just a day after the Satyam case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“In the interests of the shareholders, we have moved the Company Law Board to remove the directors of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties. We have collected enough evidence to suggest fraudulent dealings in these two firms,” minister for corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta said.
Maytas Infra is a publicly listed company in which Satyam has a 51 per cent stake. Maytas Properties, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Satyam, is not listed on the bourses.
The petition will come up for hearing on February 24.
The government has also sought the CLB’s permission to nominate government directors on the boards of the two companies.
The Maytas twins have filed a caveat against an ex parte decision on the petition. This ensures that they will get a chance to be heard before the the Company Law Board announces a verdict.
Maytas Infra has three directors on its board after several desertions that were sparked by Satyam promoter B. Ramalinga Raju’s confession on January 7 that he had fudged the accounts at the software giant for several years.
In December, Ramalinga Raju had forced Satyam directors to agree to the merger of the Maytas twins with the software company — which he later said was designed to cover up a gaping hole in Satyam’s balance sheet. The move was called off after a shareholder revolt.
Ramalinga Raju’s elder son Teja Raju runs Maytas Infra where he is vice-chairman and one of the directors. The company has two other directors: R. P. Raju and B. Narasimha Rao. Chander Sheel Bansal recently stepped down as director and was replaced by Rao.
Maytas Infra has faced some high-level resignations recently. R. C. Sinha stepped down from the post of chairman after the storm broke at Satyam. P. K. Madhav resigned as CEO after he was indicted in an unrelated case involving Nagarjuna Finance where he worked earlier.
Ramalinga Raju’s younger son B. Rama Raju Jr is the vice-chairman of Maytas Properties. On Sunday, K. Thiagarajan, chief executive officer of Maytas Properties, reportedly put in his papers.
Gupta said: “We have also requested the CLB to immediately restrain the directors on these two companies from becoming directors in any other firm.”
The ministry has also sought permission to restrain the Maytas directors from mortgaging or selling any of their shares, securities and fixed assets, including movable and immovable properties.
“This is an excellent move; in some ways, this was anticipated,” HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said. Parekh is one of the six directors appointed by the government to the Satyam board last month.
Parekh hoped that some of the lenders to the Maytas companies would be appointed to the board of directors of the two companies.
The corporate affairs ministry said it has submitted the names of several people who could be appointed as directors on the Maytas boards but refused to divulge them.
Investigations carried out by the Serious Frauds Investigation Office into the Satyam case had revealed that the Maytas firms had also fudged their accounts and were involved in money laundering and the fraudulent diversion of funds.
Officials said the Centre wanted to ensure that the Maytas firms continued to run so as to be able to recover the money due to Satyam.
The Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka governments are also concerned about the future of several large infrastructure projects awarded to Maytas Infra.
The Andhra Pradesh government had awarded infrastructure projects worth Rs 38,000 crore. The projects include the prestigious Hyderabad Metro Rail and the Machilipatnam deep water port in the coastal region.
Maytas is also executing irrigation projects in Andhra worth Rs 14000 crore. The company is also building three IT SEZs and integrated townships in Hyderabad.
