SEC meets new Satyam board as Sebi quizzes Rajus

A team from US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) arrived in India yesterday to meet the new board of fraud hit Satyam Computer Services. The US team is reported to have met SEBI officials in Mumbai in connection with the accounting fraud, for which it may be collecting information as the New York-listed Satyam is facing several class action suits filed by US based investors.

SEBI chairman CB Bhave, however, declined to comment when asked about the report by journalists at a conference in Mumbai, though Satyam officials confirmed the SEC having met the Satyam board.

Meanwhile, the seven-member SEBI team, which was granted permission by SC court to interrogate Raju brothers earlier this week, (See: Supreme Court grants SEBI access to Satyam's Rajus) quizzed Satyam founder, B Ramalinga Raju and former managing director of the company B Rama Raju at the  jail on Wednesday. 

The team, led by its southern zone general manager A Sunil Kumar, has three days to question the accused Raju brothers, currently lodged in Chanchalguda jail. It is learnt to have questioned Raju brothers on fudging of accounts, insider trading of the IT firm's stocks and diversion of the company's funds to other family promoted companies.

S Bharat Kumar, counsel for Raju brothers who had stationed himself near the jail premises over the greater part of the day yesterday said  he had been denied permission to be present during the interrogation even today. Kumar had earlier said that the defence would challenge the validity of statements extracted in confinement.(See: Satyam counsel to object to SEBI interrogation method)

The Andhra Pradesh CID, which is also investigating the case, is learnt to have sought assistance of the National Informatic Centre to decipher the data seized from the company's computers. The AP CID said that there is a possibility of more arrests in the case over the next fortnight.