Satyam saga gets murkier

By M H Ahssan

The Satyam scam is getting murkier as it is leading to a trail of huge land deals. The CID raided the office of the SRSR Advisory Services Private Limited of the Raju family on Tuesday and seized as many as 400 documents pertaining to land deals. Even as it is looking to question B Suryanarayana Raju, brother of Satyam's ex-chairman B Ramalinga Raju and a shareholder of SRSR, he has gone 'missing'.

"Before we take further action, we want to first question him but he has not been accessible," CID IG V S K Kaumudi told TOI here on Wednesday.

SRSR Advisory's shareholders include B Suryanarayana Raju, B Ramalinga Raju, B Rama Raju, B Nandini Raju, B Raja Raju (Jr), B Jhansi Rani, B Radha and B Teja Raju. The board of directors include B Suryanarayana Raju, B Nandini Raju, B Radha and B Teja Raju.

"The documents seized indicate that several thousands of acres were purchased in different locations in the country and they were registered in the names of several family members of Ramalinga Raju," a CID official said.

Kaumudi said that the investigation would look at the source of funds for buying the land.

Raju’s counsel dismisses ‘confession’ talk
Satyam ex-chairman B Ramalinga Raju has reportedly confessed that he has diverted the funds of Satyam to purchase land and properties on Wednesday, the last day of his CID custody. CID officials said Raju made the admission that he had diverted the company’s funds to buy properties and land not only in the state but in other parts of the country.

However, Raju’s counsel S Bharat Kumar said no such confession was made. “If that is what the police is claiming, it is wrong,” he said. If the police claim is true, this is in sharp contrast to his earlier claim that he had shown inflated bank balances. However, such an admission made to the police while in their custody can be easily contested by Raju’s advocate.

According to CID officials, Raju also admitted to diverting funds through the salary accounts of fictitious employeees. “There could be 10,000 fictitious employees though our preliminary enquiry suggests that there are at least 6,000 ficititous salary accounts,” a CID official said.

The CID suspects that the ‘fictitious’ salary accounts might have been used to siphon off funds from Satyam to the other agencies like Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties in which Rajus have interests.

“The bank accounts of the Satyam employees are under scrutiny,” a CID officer said.

Police also sought information from various banks, whose fixed deposit receipts have been found during the searches at Satyam’s former auditors PricewaterouseCoopers office at Jubilee Hills. “Whether the FD receipts are original or not is to be confirmed by banks. We are waiting for their response,” the police officer said.