"Our HR department is now verifying the employee details," the company's spokesperson said on Saturday.

"As of now, we believe there are 53,000 employees, which is subject to verification and auditing," a Satyam spokesperson said on Friday , adding "the board has confirmed that prima facie there appears to be no basis to doubt the same."

The Andhra Pradesh CID had told the local court that Satyam's founder B Ramalinga Raju had admitted that the number of employees was inflated by over 12,000, by which he (Raju) drew over Rs 20 crore a month towards staff cost.

Ramalinga Raju's lawyer Bharat Kumar said the police claim is wrong.

According to a Satyam official, the line managers have been asked to provide details of the employees directly reporting to them.

The HR department's verification is based on active e-mail IDs and access card data captured across the offices of Satyam.