And now, I-T Dept seeks court permission to access Raju

10 February 2009

The income tax department today moved a local court in Hyderabad seeking permission to interrogate B Ramalinga Raju, promoter of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, now kept under judicial custody.

The I-T department filed an application in the court of the 6th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate seeking custody of B Ramalinga Raju, former chairman of Satyam Computer Services, for three days, to interrogate him over the fudging of accounts and other related issues.

Ramalinga Raju, his brother and Satyam's former managing director Rama Raju along with three officials of audit firm PricewaterhouseCopers are being held in judicial custody in connection with Rs7,800-crore fraud in the IT firm.

The court posted the hearing in this matter to 13 February.

The I-T petition follows another application filed by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking permission of the court to quiz and record the statements of former Satyam CFO Vadlamani Srinivas and PWC's sacked executives S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas.

SEBI had earlier, on the direction of the Supreme Court, interrogated and recorded statements of Ramalinga Raju and Rama Raju for three days at the Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad.