Satyam Raju bought lands abroad as well: prosecution

HYDERABAD - Disgraced Satyam Computer Services founder B. Ramalinga Raju bought lands not only in India but in other countries also, prosecutors told a court here Friday.

The court deferred hearing on the bail pleas of Raju and Satyam’s former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas to Jan 27 and that of Raju’s brother B. Rama Raju, who was the fraud-hit company’s managing director to Jan 28.

Lawyers for Andhra Pradesh police crime investigation department (CID) said information about Ramalinga Raju buying lands in foreign countries was given by Gopalakrishna Raju, former general manager of SRSR Advisory Services, floated by the Raju family.

Gopalakrishna Raju has also been arrested. Ramalinga Raju set up SRSR to manage his family stake in Satyam Computer Services.

The court was also informed that BNP Paribas, one of the bankers for Satyam, had told the CID that it did not have any Fixed Deposits of Satyam.

‘There has been no transaction with the bank since March 31, 2004,’ the prosecutors quoted BNP as having informed CID.

They opposed granting bail to the Raju brothers and Srinivas as, they feared, they might tamper with evidence.

‘The crime is not an ordinary one. It can attract life imprisonment,’ the prosecutors submitted.

Lawyers for Ramalinga Raju and Srinivas argued that there was no way that the two can tamper with evidence as all documents were the CID.

The judicial custody of the Raju brothers and Srinivas was to end Friday. The Raju brothers were arrested Jan 9, two days after Ramalinga Raju’s startling admission of a Rs.70 billion (Rs.7,000 crore) financial fraud, the country’s biggest corporate scam.

All the three were in police custody from Jan 18 to Jan 22. The police custody of Ramalinga Raju and Srinivas was extended till Friday.