Meet C Achuthan, Satyam's Man Friday

Excerpts from What's Hot on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Mahindra Satyam: No more attrition from existing customers CBI unearths additional fraud of Rs4739cr in Satyam Nifty BSE | NSE 29/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Satyam is out of danger but things could all have been very different had salaries were not paid on 14th of January that's the word coming in from C Achuthan - who was part of the initial team which was constituted to rescue Satyam.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Achuthan talked about how confident the rescue team was initially.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video.

C Achuthan: To be frank I was very nervous. We knew the responsibility and we knew the gravity of the issue involved. It was not a company failure at the micro level. The impact was very large. So if we had also failed, then the issue would have got compounded. So we were all worried about it.

Q: When you visited the campus, when you saw those young employees, many of you would have looked at you probably saying what wrong did we do. They were all perhaps at the stage where they could have all lost their jobs. What was the feeling you went through at that time?

A: We were feeling very sad about the entire episode. But then we were not weeping, then we wanted to act.

Q: And was that the biggest challenge at that point in time to make sure that the salaries went through?

A: That was the main thing because on 14th the salary was due to the employees in America and if we had failed to pay the salary on that day, the story would have been different.

Q: You wouldn't have been able to rescue Satyam?

A: I don't think, then the customers, the employees would have left, if no customers then what is there to revive. In an IT company, it is the expertise, the employees that is the asset, and there they are no longer required if you don't have business and nobody will come if there is no proper person to provide the service.

So it would have been a very dangerous situation. So we had to hold on the customers, the employees and to hold on we had to instill confidence in the customers and meet the legitimate requirements of the employees. The first thing is the payment, without salary - a salaried employee cannot pull on.

Q: It has been now about a year, from an enforcement, judicial, justice point of view, we really haven't seen much happening. Do you think that while one part of the exercise which has got global upload was to rescue the company and its employees was successful? But bringing this man to justice is still some time away?

A: It may take some time because the procedure, you cannot rush through, there are certain established procedures, you have to go through that one. The government has already appointed a special court for this purpose I understand and the CBI has already filed a chargesheet, now the process will start.

Q: While the Upaid case has just about got settled and a big overhang which was on this company has gone and I think it has been a good negotiation because from an original demand of a billion, you have settled at USD 70 million. What about the other class actions suits, are they still hanging on Satyam?

A: 90% of the class action suits in America are settled out of courts.

Q: Do you believe that Satyam today is rescued?

A: I strongly believe.

Q: The past is totally behind and the company is back on track because you are still there on the board?

A: That is my perception and that is it is out of danger.

Q: The only other thing which is probably a question mark could be the class actions suit or the restatement as and when that happened?

A: The restatement will be coming. In any case we have to do it because there is a certainty about it. The class action what is the amount that is the only issue.