Satyam scam: Court completes examination

Ramalinga Raju, founder and former chairman of fraud-hit Satyam Computers, is escorted from a court in Hyderabad. A file photo: G. Krishnaswamy.

The special court dealing with multi-crore Satyam scam in Hyderabad on Monday completed the process of examination of Satyam accused.

After examinations of the accused, XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) BVLN Chakravarti posted the case to August 18 for arguments on framing of charges.

While nine accused including two former auditors of Price waterhouseCoopers (PWC) were examined by the Magistrate, the prime accused and former chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju submitted his reply through his counsel to the court.

Raju was supplied with the questionnaire through his counsel as he is undergoing treatment for Hepatitis—C at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) hospital here.

The Magistrate first called B Ramraju, former M D and brother of Ramalinga Raju, and read out 30 charges of CBI.

Ramraju replied all charge as “false”. The charges ranging from accounting fraud to fabricating of invoices and FDRs in connivance with other accused including filling of falsified Income Tax returns.

Later, the Magistrate gave questionnaires to eight other accused including ex-CFO of Satyam firm Vadlamani Srinivas and two former auditors of PWC-S Gopalakrishnan and his deputy Talluri Srinivas.

While six accused including former CFO Vadlamani submitted the questionnaires with their reply to Magistrate in 15 to 30 minutes, two former auditors took about 45 minutes to submit their replies.