By IANS,
New Delhi : The Company Law Board Thursday allowed the government to name four directors, including the chairperson, to the board of Maytas Infra but set aside a petition seeking to supersede the company’s entire top brass.
The permission immediately resulted in the government appointing senior advocate and tax expert O.P. Vaish and noted chartered accountant Ved Jain as two of the four government directors.
“We will appoint two more directors soon,” Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta told reporters here, confirming the permission from the Company Law Board. He said the board has asked the government to move another petition if desired.
The family of B. Ramalinga Raju whose role is being probed in the $1.43 billion Satyam scam has also promoted Maytas Infra, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Raju is the company’s founder and former chairperson and Maytas is Satyam spelt backwards.
“The government intention is to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are preserved,” Gupta said, as a probe continued not just on Satyam and Maytas Infra, but also some 300 others believed to be associated with the group.
The news, which came toward the closing bell on major bourses in the country Thursday, resulted in the shares of Maytas Infra shedding 3.62 percent to close at Rs.36.40.
Maytas Properties, run by one of the two sons of Raju, is an unlisted company. In December last year, Satyam, then under its founder’s control, had made a $1.6-billion aborted bid to takeover the two Maytas firms.