CBI files chargesheet against Ramalinga Raju, 8 others

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet in the multi-crore Satyam accounting fraud case against the company’s disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju and eight others. The 76-page chargesheet was filed before the special court in Hyderabad under various sections of Indian penal code for cheating and forgery. Besides Raju, those named in the chargesheet include his brother and former managing director of the firm Rama Raju, Satyam’s former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, and the two sacked auditors of PriceWaterhouse, S Gopalkrishnan and Talluri Srinivas. Others named in the chargesheet include Satyam employees G Ramakrishna (vice president- Finance), D Venkatpathi Raju and Srisailam, both in the finance department of the IT oursourcer. Raju’s another brother Suryanarayna Raju, a director with SRSR Advisory Services is the ninth person named in the chargesheet. Except Suryanarayana Raju, others are under the judicial custody and are lodged in the Chanchalguda jail here. The CBI submitted 1,532 original documents of bank transactions and 65,000-page other documents, which included the statements of 432 witnesses in the case along with the chargesheet in the court. The case was handed over to CBI on 18th February by the centre after a request for the same was received from the Andhra Pradesh government. The scam, “unique” of its own kind has made CBI constitute a multi-disciplinary investigation team (MDIT) headed by deputy inspector general V V Lakshmi Narayana. The team will be headquartered in Hyderabad to undertake a thorough probe. The case against the accused was registered under 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 and 468 (forgery), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 477-A (falsification of accounts). Experts, including chartered accountants (CAs) from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI), are also assisting the investigative agency in probing the role of regulators in this case. The CBI claimed to have found inflating revenues during its probe and seized relevant documents. In January Ramalinga Raju revealing a multi-crore accounting fraud in the company, confessed to cooking company’s account books inflating profits for many years. Three days later, he was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Police.

"Loved reading this piece by Prakash Yedhula?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"

Join our Telegram group

Join our Whatsapp group