The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Additional Solicitor General to an appeal filed by Tech Mahindra in the Satyam scam case.
Tech Mahindra — earlier known as Satyam Computer Services — had appealed against the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s decision to permit a special court to continue with process of framing charges against it in a criminal case initiated by the ED.
A bench, headed by Justice TS Thakur, asked ASG Maninder Singh to look into the appeal, which runs into 14 volumes, and posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing Tech Mahindra, argued that there was neither any allegation nor material to show that the firm was ever aware of the commission of scheduled offence or the fact money worth Rs 822 crore in its possession was ‘tainted’.
Part of the $16-billion Mahindra group, Tech Mahindra had purchased Satyam in a government-backed auction in 2009 after the Satyam founder admitted to one of India’s biggest accounting frauds, he told the bench.
“Satyam is the victim of an unprecedented fraud perpetrated by its former chairman B Ramalinga Raju and his associates,” Tech Mahindra said.
He said that the successor firm did not receive a single penny and had Rs 600 crore debt before taking over.
“Whatever was recovered was outside the books,” he argued.
For Updates Check Company News; follow us on Facebook and Twitter