The chairman of India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. quit Wednesday after admitting the company’s profits had been inflated for several years, sending shares of the software services provider plunging by more than 70 percent.

In a letter to the company’s board, released to the Bombay Stock Exchange, chairman B. Ramalinga Raju said Satyam had “inflated profits over a period of (the) last several years.”

The plunge in Satyam shares dragged Bombay’s Sensex index down nearly 6 percent to 9,728.74.

Raju’s letter said the company’s balance sheet was loaded with “fictitious” assets and “non-existent cash.”

Satyam’s shares collapsed, diving 71 percent to 51 Indian rupees.