Satyam scam rocks LS; dissatisfied Left, NDA stage walkout

The Satyam scam rocked the Lok Sabha as opposition members walked out of the House dissatisfied with an assurance by Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta that investigating agencies were working on a war-footing to unravel the fraud and book the guilty.

The Satyam scam on Wednesday rocked the Lok Sabha as opposition members walked out of the House dissatisfied with an assurance by Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta that investigating agencies were working on a war-footing to unravel the fraud and book the guilty.

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Gupta's statement that "all the investigating agencies are working on war-footing and are in full command of the investigation", failed to assuage the feelings of opposition members who wanted to know why the regulators had failed to detect the fraud which was going on for past several years.

Following heated exchange of words between the opposition members and treasury benches, members of the NDA and Left parties staged a walkout.

Earlier, while winding up a discussion on the Rs 7,800-crore scam, Gupta recalled the steps taken by the government since admission of fudging of accounts by the founder chairman of the company B Ramalinga Raju on January 7.

Denying allegations of lack of coordination among the investigating agencies probing the scam, he said, "SEBI, Registrar of Companies, SFIO teams are working closely...No evidence of any non-cooperation by state or central agencies".

The Minister said this responding to remarks of a former SEBI chairman that Andhra Pradesh CID was providing protective custody to Raju and not allowing the SEBI to question him.