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Independent directors of Satyam were not involved in the multi-crore accounting fraud in the IT company and were kept in the dark by founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office has concluded.
The over 14,000-page report submitted to the government, marking the end of three month-long investigation, the probe agency of the Corporate Affairs Ministry said four independent directors of the company were questioned in connection with the scam.
Sources in the ministry said SFIO questioned Vinod Dham, Manglam Srinivasan, K G Palepu and T R Prasad and found that they had no knowledge about the falsification of accounts that happened allegedly at the behest of Raju, his brother and other top executives of the IT giant.
The SFIO also questioned the then whole-time director and senior executive Ram Mynampati but found no clear evidence linking him to the scam, sources said.
The government had, on January 11, ordered an SFIO probe into the scam soon after Raju admitted to a Rs 7,800-crore fraud at the company, wherein he disclosed that he had falsified profits for several years.
The role of independent directors had come under scanner in late December itself when Satyam said that its board has unanimously approved a proposal to acquire two firms promoted by Raju's family -- Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.