Ramalinga Raju appears before CBI court

HYDERABAD, INDIA: B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam founder and the prime accused of the multi-billion financial scam, today reached the CBI court to be questioned by the investigative agency.

The CBI, probing the multi-crore Satyam scam had on Monday issued a notice to the former chairman of the IT firm, asking him to appear before it on Tuesday for further questioning.

After getting bail from Andhra Pradesh High Court recently, Raju was undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C at NIMS hospital and he was released last week from the hospital. Though the bail condition was that he should report to the CBI court daily, he got a relaxation since he was undergoing a treatment, which delayed the trial.

According reports, the questioning would revolve around the alleged funds diversion to some of the foreign countries from which CBI is awaiting replies.

56-year-old Raju has been in jail since January last year when he admitted to a Rs.7,800-crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computer Services Ltd, which he had founded.

While resigning as chairman of the firm, he confessed on January 7, 2009 that the company cooked up its books, resulting in an "inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances" over several years.

Two days later, he surrendered before the police and was lodged in Chanchalguda central jail here.

The CBI, however, told the court in November last year that the scam is of over Rs.14,000 crore and during the hearing on his bail petition in the High Court, the prosecution said the investors suffered a loss of Rs.24,000 crore.

However, Satyam, which announced its financial results last week, informed the the stock exchanges that the financial irregularities perpetrated by the original promoters of Satyam Computer Services led by B. Ramalinga Raju resulted in a Rs.7855 crore impact on the company's accounts.

The CBI had recently filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of bail to Raju and nine other accused in the case, following which the apex court issued notice to Raju to file a reply before October 19.