Govt sees no wrong in Murty selling his shares

HYDERABAD: Ramalinga Raju pledged all his shares in Satyam to raise money, but his top manager A S Murty believed in directly selling his stock holding in the company. In the period March 2007 to December 2008, the new CEO of Satyam disposed off 1,21,005 shares of the company in the market.

As per data available on the site of BSE, Murty is left with 50,065 shares of the company after he sold 40,000 Satyam shares, in two tranches, between December 12-16. This was just on the eve of the crucial board meeting that approved a deal allowing Satyam to buy into Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.

The government on Friday said there was nothing wrong in Murty selling about 40,000 shares of the company days ahead of an acquisition announcement. ���What���s wrong in that? Even if you have shares you will sell them,��� minister for corporate affairs P C Gupta said in New Delhi in response to a query whether the sale of shares by Murty between December 12-16, 2008 was a matter of concern and could have been a case of insider trading as the sale preceded an abortive acquisition deal, now at the centre of the Satyam accounting scam.



But Murty was not the only Satyam senior executive to have sold the company���s scrips on these crucial days. Senior vice president V Murali sold 10,000 shares on December 15 and another senior vice-president Manish Mehta sold 5,200 shares between December 12 and 15.

Considering that Murty was Raju���s close confidant, many analysts are speculating about the timing of the new CEO���s share sales and the subsequent train of events that unfolded at Satyam. TOI on Friday sent a query to Murty asking him why he had sold off the shares at this crucial jucture. His written response was: ���Our legal advisors have suggested that the initial responses are sent after due validation. We will strive to revert by Monday or Tuesday next week.���

Earlier, Murty had sold 2,800 shares inJune and 6,100 shares in May. Somewhere in between, he also sold another 2,000 shares. But the 51-year old CEO went for the kill a year before that: in the period April-June 2007, Murty sold off 70,105 shares. During this period the Satyam scrip, with a face value of Rs 2, had hovered between Rs 435 and Rs 514 a piece on the BSE.

Although disclosures to the stock exchange reveal that Murty had frequently sold Satyam shares, there is no indication that he ever bought shares of the company.