CBI files charge sheet in Satyam fraud case

Hyderabad: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a charge sheet in the Rs78 billion accounting fraud in Satyam Computer Services Ltd, three months after the company's disgraced founder and former chairman B Ramalinga Raju admitted to India's biggest corporate scam.

The CBI filed the charge sheet in a special court for CBI cases in Hyderabad.

The 2,315-page chargesheet said Ramalinga Raju and his brother and former managing director of the IT major were the brains behind the scam while seven other accused, including three arrested on Sunday, assisted them.

The CBI personnel brought the charge sheet and thousands of other documents in a mini- truck to Nampally Criminal Court complex and submitted the same to the court of XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S Samuel Victor Emmanuel.

The documents, CDs and other records were brought in 25 trunk boxes.

The charge sheet has statements of 500 witnesses.

The court has also allowed the CBI to collect samples of specimen signatures and handwriting of the Raju brothers and the former chief financial officer of the company, Srinivas Vadlamani. The CBI wants to establish the charge of forgery against the accused.

The court posted to Wednesday orders on bail petitions of former auditors of Price Waterhouse S. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri.

Ramalinga Raju had quit as Satyam chairman Jan 7 while confessing he cooked the company's account books and inflated profits over the past several years.

The Rajus were arrested by Andhra Pradesh police Jan 9. Srinivas was picked up the next day. The former auditors were also arrested the same month.

The CBI Sunday arrested three executives of Satyam's finance wing and the court Monday remanded them to judicial custody till April 15.

G. Ramakrishna, vice-president (finance), D. Venkatapathi Raju, senior manager (finance), and Ch. Srisailam, assistant manager, were arrested on the charge of preparing fake invoices, bank confirmation letters and fixed deposit receipts.

CBI officials said they implemented the mechanism for fraud designed by Ramalinga Raju.

These were the first arrests since the investigations into the fraud in the IT major were handed over to the CBI in February.

With this, the number of accused in the case rose to nine. All the accused are currently lodged in Chanchalguda central jail here.