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Bengaluru: Billionaire tech veteran Ashok Soota-promoted Happiest Minds on Saturday said it has “absolutely no connection” to an eponymous bank account that the Karnataka government has identified as one of the beneficiaries of embezzled public money.
A bank account named Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd at RBL Bank is shown as having received Rs 4.53 crore belonging to the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation where authorities are investigating unauthorised transfer of money.
In a statement, Happiest Minds said that the bank account (00015010055200010) does not belong to the company.
“We have absolutely no connection to the bank account number 00015010055200010 or the branch mentioned (RBL Bank, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, IFSC Code RATN0000341) and this has been confirmed by RBL Bank authorities as well,” the company said in a statement.
Happiest Minds raised the matter with RBL Bank. Accordingly, the bank issued a letter Saturday to Happiest Minds MD and CFO Venkataraman N stating that the account in question “is not an account opened by and belonging to” the company.
“This deliberate attempt to link our company to such activity is a blatant fabrication. We have always upheld the highest standards of business ethics and corporate governance. We are deeply disappointed that our name has been erroneously dragged into this matter,” Happiest Minds said.
“We are confident that a thorough investigation will reveal the truth and expose those responsible for these false and baseless accusations. We are also pursuing all legal avenues available to us to protect our Company's reputation,” the company added.
This company’s name figures in a letter Additional Chief Secretary (Scheduled Tribes Welfare) N Manjunatha Prasad wrote to RBL Bank managing director and chief executive R Subramaniakumar on Friday.
Prasad has asked the RBL Bank to freeze the Corporation’s money amounting to Rs 89 crore transferred to its accounts fraudulently from the Union Bank of India’s MG Road branch in Bengaluru.
The Karnataka government has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) even as the Union Bank of India has approached the CBI.