Naidu wants judicial probe into Satyam

Statesman News Service
HYDERABAD, Feb. 9: Leader of the Opposition Mr N Chandrababu Naidu today demanded that the Satyam fraud be probed by a sitting judge, while the ruling Congress questioned the donations made by former Satyam chairman Mr B Ramalinga Raju to the TDP.
“This government has given works worth Rs 38,000 cr to Maytas (owned by Mr Raju’s son Mr Teja Raju) and this company has 6,000 acres. This whole scandal dealing with Satyam and Maytas needs to be probed by a sitting Judge”, he said during a debate on the issue. The debate would continue tomorrow. Government chief whip Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy countered that there is not a single allegation against the Congress or any of its leaders about links with Satyam or the Rajus. “But the fact is Rs 1 cr has been donated to NTR Trust (location of the TDP headquarters) belonging to Mr Naidu and his wife Mrs Bhuvaneshwari. The CEO of this trust is on record saying that they received the monies”, he said.
He also pointed out that the list of donors on the TDP website vanished soon after the Satyam scandal broke out. But it is found in Google’s cache history. “Why did you remove this list? An answer to this is needed”. He further pointed out that former TDP functionary and Sports Authority of AP ex-chairman Mr PNV Prasad detailed Mr Raju’s links at a Press conference yesterday.
“Mr Prasad said Satyam has sponsored Mr Naidu’s son Mr N Lokesh’s education in the USA. Further Satyam delivered the TDP membership cards for free. Are you having links with Satyam or are we having links with them?” he asked. Later finance minister Mr K Rosaiah said Maytas got 12.22 per cent of various civil works during the TDP rule, while it got 6.8 per cent during the Congress rule.