The Andhra Pradesh government has issued a government order, handing over the investigations into the Satyam case to the CBI.
The state government has already submitted a copy of the government order to the High Court. This was issued on February 13, the state home minister, K Jana Reddy, told the media here today. The state chief minister, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has already written twice to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to instruct the officials concerned to take over the investigations into the Rs 7,800-crore Satyam fraud.
The chief minister said that the case has many ramifications including overseas operations and is a fit case to be investigated by the CBI for ensuring justice to various stakeholders.
Already, Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the market regulator, is investigating into the Satyam scandal and have recorded the statements of B Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju, and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani for three days from February 6 to 9.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office also questioned the Raju brothers and the former chief financial officer on February 14, and Pricewaterhouse partners and auditors on February 15. The sixth additional chief metropolitan court today reserved the orders on a plea filed by the Income Tax department, seeking permission to question Ramalinga Raju for three days, to February 18.
Prosecutor A Ramakrishna Reddy said that he will confront him with the documents that he has submitted to the department.
He said the balance sheet (as on September 30, 2008) showed cash and deposits of Rs 5,040 crore but the books reflected them as Rs 5,361 crore. The records also showed Rs 376 crore as interest accrued on the deposits. Raju also understated the liabilities at Rs 1,230 crore. “We need three days to confront Ramalinga Raju with the documents he has submitted,” the prosecutor said.
Meanwhile, the bail plea of PW auditors has been dismissed. The hearing of Sebi seeking court’s permission to question Vadlamani and the two PW auditors will come up for hearing tomorrow.
