However, Satyam officials feign ignorance about the whole issue. "We still don't know how it happened. The information that we received is that it was an incomplete result and only some items were there. We are trying to find out what happened. By the time we logged on it was not there," says S.V.L. Narayan, Vice-President, Corporate Communications, Satyam Computer Services. The procedure which is normally followed is that after the board meeting, the company faxes the results to various stock exchanges, in this case BSE, NSE, HSE, and DSE. Then the results are released to the wire services and press. Under clause 41 of the listing agreement of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the company has to immediately inform the NSE, once the results are passed.

Sebi, NSE, and HSE have asked Satyam for explanation. Satyam's reply to NSE was, "Satyam is investigating the possibility of anyone accessing the unapproved information even for few seconds from the website due to any technical snag at the time of construction of site, on account of factors beyond the control of the company."

At the time this story was written, everybody was waiting for more information so that action could be taken against Satyam. The regulators are verifying Satyam's explanation. "For the time being we are taking it on face value. We have to determine the true intention of the company and whether it was done consciously or not," says Suchitra Ramakrishnan, Director (Business Operations), NSE.

Sebi and the Hyderabad Stock Exchange have also launched their probes separately. "We have asked for some more information. If all this is found true, then yes the company has broken a rule. Potentially they can be suspended, but since Satyam is being traded actively we will have to take a comprehensive view. They could come out with an excuse that it was an internal fault. The ultimate responsibility lies upon Sebi to act", explains S. Rangachari, President, Hyderabad Stock Exchange.