SEBI moves SC for permission to interrogate Raju brothers
02 Feb 2009
Weeks after an official team from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) landed in Hyderabad to investigate the Rs7,000 crore Satyam Computer Services scam, the market regulator today moved the Supreme court seeking permission to interrogate the promoters of the IT company.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed SEBI to mention the matter tomorrow after Solicitor General G E Vahanvati and counsel Pratap Venugopal submitted the request on behalf of SEBI.
SEBI approached the apex court for urgent relief after the Andhra Pradesh high court last week deferred hearing on a plea for access to the Raju brothers – Ramalinga and Rama - to 9 February.
SEBI said the delay could be disastrous considering the seriousness of the financial scam which had large-scale national and international ramifications.
SEBI had moved the high court after a lower court denied it permission to interrogate the Raju brothers, saying the regulator was not investigating powers. The court also said there was no provision in law under which SEBI could interrogate the Raju brothers.
The SEBI team had reached Hyderabad on 8 January, a day after Ramalinga Raju disclosed the massive accounting fraud at the IT company.
The Raju brothers were arrested by the state police on 9 January, the day the SEBI team summoned them to appear before it in Hyderabad.
The two brothers, along with Satyam's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, are now in judicial custody.