CBI charge-sheets Raju brothers, 6 others

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a 300-page charge-sheet in the Satyam scam case. Completing the investigation in 45 days, the CBI is planning to continue the probe by looking at other facets of the scam.

VV Laxmi Narayana, the CBI DIG in Hyderabad, said, “We will file supplementary charge-sheets as when we come up with fresh information.”

The charge-sheet primarily deals with the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that were slapped on the accused in the case at the time of filing the complaint in February. However, the charge-sheet does not deal with the alleged diversion of funds by the accused from Satyam.

The CBI has named nine accused in its charge-sheet including B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju, ex-CFO Srinivas Vadlamani, auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, Raju’s younger brother B Suryanarayana Raju, Satyam’s vice-president (finance) G Ramakrishna, senior manager D Venkatapathi Raju and assistant manager Ch Srisailam. Except Suryanarayana Raju, who had sought an anticipatory bail, all others are in custody.

The CBI had slapped the case on the accused under nine sections of the IPC - 120-B read with 420, 419, 467, 468, 471, 477-A and 201.

The accused have been charge-sheeted for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating, using a forged document as genuine, falsification of accounts and for causing disappearance of evidence.

While submitting the charge-sheet, the CBI had also surrendered to the court the documents that have been gathered and prepared by it in about 22 trunk boxes weighing about two tonnes.

The CBI counsel said that the documents contain the statements of about 432 witnesses in the form of 1,532 documents running into about 65,000 pages.

The country’s premier investigating agency took over the case from Andhra Pradesh police on February 20, 2009.  Meanwhile, the bail petitions of the accused are still at a hearing stage in the court and the orders on the bail application of the Price Waterhouse auditors are likely to come up in the court on Wednesday.

Though it was said that the CBI was submitting its charge-sheet only to ensure that the accused do not get the bail by default, Laxmi Naryana said that there is no link between the bail and the charge-sheet.

In fact, if CBI doesn’t file charge-sheet within 90 days of taking up the case, the accused can seek a bail on the grounds of the investigators were delaying the probe, he said. 

In this case, CBI completed the probe in about 45 days from the date of taking it over, though it would be 90 days on April 9 if investigation by the AP police is included.
Meanwhile, Price Waterhouse, the audit firm, said that it has not come across any wrong doing by its auditors on Satyam account. It said they were victims of the Satyam fraud.