SFIO to begin probe into Satyam: Salman Khurshid

The Government on Monday  said the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will begin prosecution into the Satyam scam this month.

"During this month, the SFIO will begin the prosecution on those or those areas of company laws that the SFIO is expected to and have been authorised to proceed with," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told a press conference here. He said the agency is "dutifully and diligently" pursuing what it is supposed to do in the Satyam case.

The SFIO, an arm of the Corporate Affairs Ministry, had investigated the multi-crore rupee Satyam accounting fraud and submitted its reports to the Government detailing violations of company law by founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju and others.

The investigating agency will initiate proceedings on about 30 charges, mostly under the Companies Act of 1956, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be acting on five or six charges involving criminal offences under the penal code, sources said. The Corporate Affairs Ministry had asked the SFIO to initiate prosecution in the Satyam case after obtaining opinion of the Solicitor General, sources said.