Satyam's audit records will be summoned: Sources

We spoke to ICAI President Ved Jain earlier in the afternoon and he highlighted the following points. One is that severe and strict action will be taken against the ICAI auditor - there were no pulling punches on this and he also said that the probe will be expedited. In normal circumstances it takes a few months for such a situation to have panned out, but ICAI says that there will be a special and fast driven effort to collect all information from various sources that includes all the audit records and the books of accounts, to check what really happened and focus of ICA is obviously on the audit firm because that is what ICA mandate is to see where the accounting irregularities.

There is also likelihood that all the books and documents will be seized in anticipation that there would be some sort of attempt to probably hide facts or tamper with the evidence. So there will be very soon some sort of impounding or seizer measure of all the documents that are concerned and related to this case. Clearly, Jain did not pull any punches with regard to saying what will be done to the auditor. He said it is a question of only finding out was there negligence or was there connivance and if either of the cases is there then all the possible action that can be taken and will be taken.

There happens to be one more collateral damage to the Satyam saga, the Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Rammohan Rao has resigned, he was also an Independent Director on the Board of Satyam and he quit when that Maytas controversy was erupted. But there are questions if he was also the Chairman of the Audit Committee.

No, he was not the Chairman of the Audit Committee, but he was the Member of the Audit Committee also as we learn of the Compensation Committee. According to my sources, the ISB has indeed sent out a communication to members of the executive council, which includes almost all the top doyens of Indian Industry, India Inc, in which they have communicated that Rao is stepping down infact there is some sort of selection of a new Dean that is going to happen.

Rao is not answering calls on his mobile phone, a message sent to him remains unanswered, other efforts to get a reaction from ISB - they have apparently refused comments. But according to our sources, he is the first high profile victim of the immediate focus on the audit norms, audit standards and corporate governance standards in this Satyam case and I don't know will there be more heads that will roll, possibly we will get to know more of that in the days ahead.