By IANS,
Hyderabad : Maytas Infra chairman R.C. Sinha resigned from the infrastructure and construction firm for “personal reasons”, a company director said Thursday.
Sinha is reportedly a close friend of besieged Satyam Computer Services founder chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, who holds a 36 percent stake in Maytas Infra, a listed firm.
Ramalinga Raju’s second son Teja Raju is the vice-chairman and chief executive of Maytas Infra. His other son runs the realty firm Maytas Properties.
“Sinha put in his papers late Wednesday for personal reasons. He is based in Mumbai and is a former IAS officer from Maharashtra cadre,” Maytas Infra whole-time director C.S. Bansal told IANS here.
Satyam’s tale of woes began Dec 16 when its board made an aborted bid to buy out the two Maytas firms for Rs.79.2 billion (Rs.7,920 crore/$1.6 billion) by dipping into its inflated cash reserves.
Asked whether Sinha has resigned in the wake of Ramalinga Raju’s resignation from Satyam and shocking disclosures on financial fraud in the IT bellwether, Bansal said it could be a reason as the two were friends and “Sinha would have decided to stay clear of the contentious issues that have surfaced”.
“It could be a coincidence as Sinha decided to put in his papers the same day (Wednesday) when Raju had quit,” he added.
Bansal ruled out any impact of Satyam’s fiasco on Maytas Infra operations as the latter was run independently and had its own board of directors and separate management.
“Satyam and Maytas are two independent entities. Though Raju had substantial stake and his son is the vice-chairman, he does not hold any post in our company or is involved in its various projects,” Bansal added.