The Hindu : Front Page : Raju to get no special treatment

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Sunday, Jan 11, 2009
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Raju to get no special treatment

K. Srinivas Reddy

Disgraced Satyam ex-chairman sent to Chanchalguda Central Prison

— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

LAW PREVAILS: Police escorting the vehicle in which Satyam ex-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju was taken on Saturday evening.

HYDERABAD: The disgraced ex-chairman of the Satyam Computer Services, B. Ramalinga Raju, would be sharing the claustrophobic confines of the admission block in Chanchalguda Central Prison with 26 other persons remanded to judicial custody on Saturday.

Prison authorities said there were ‘clear and strict’ instructions that Mr. Raju should not be shown any preference and treated ‘equal’ with other remand prisoners. These orders came in the backdrop of the sudden shift of the prison Superintendent Chandrasekhar just a day earlier. Authorities say Mr. Chandrasekhar was given the marching orders on charges of ‘showing a favour’ to the other high-profile remand prisoners, K.S. Raju, chairman of the Nagarjuna Finance Limited (NFL) and P.K. Madhav, a former NFL director, who were shifted to Gandhi Hospital a fortnight ago on medical grounds. Senior authorities felt it was an ‘improper’ act and transferred him. Another officer Newton was posted in his place.

When Mr. Raju was produced before the Magistrate in the evening, his advocates sought proper medical care in the jail claiming that he was suffering from acute Hepatitis-C infection and heavy fluctuations in his blood pressure. The magistrate had ordered that he be provided with proper medical care in jail. Significantly, no plea was made to refer him to a hospital.

In the jail, Mr. Raju would be eligible for 650 grams of rice provided thrice a day along with 250 grams of vegetable curry and 125 grams of dal as per the jail manual. Tea would be served twice a day. He would be given a dhurrie, a blanket and a bed-sheet. There would not be any television in the barrack and only one newspaper would be provided in the entire admission block.

Not hungry

On being admitted to the jail, he was asked whether he would require any medical examination, but a composed Mr. Raju declined the offer and had even informed the authorities that he was not hungry too, indicating that he did not want supper.

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