The Hindu : Front Page : 3 executives of Satyam arrested

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Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009
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3 executives of Satyam arrested

N. Rahul

They prepared fake invoices, bank letters
Connived with statutory auditors for certification

HYDERABAD: Three executives of Satyam Computers in its finance wing, who were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) late on Sunday night, were remanded to judicial custody till April 15 by a court here on Monday.

G. Ramakrishna, vice-president, D. Venkatapathi Raju, senior manager, and Ch. Srisailam, assistant manager, were produced in the court of the Fourteenth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate N. Victor Immanuel in the afternoon.

Deputy Inspector-General of CBI V.V. Lakshmi Narayana told The Hindu that they were picked up on the charge of implementing the mechanism for fraud designed by the former Satyam Computers chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju. They prepared fake invoices, bank confirmation letters and fixed deposit receipts.

The remand report of the accused submitted to the court by CBI also said they forged and fabricated financial data in their software package. They also connived with statutory auditors and ensured that the fabricated balance sheets and audit reports were certified by the latter. With this, nine persons have so far been arrested in connection with the fraud in Satyam.

The court heard a petition by the CBI to obtain samples of handwriting and specimen signatures of Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju and the former chief financial officer of the company, Srinivas Vadlamani, in the presence of the magistrate.

The CBI made the application to establish the charge of forgery against them but the court gave no ruling.

Similarly, another petition by the CBI seeking permission to subject them to lie detection and brain mapping was stiffly opposed by defence counsel on the ground that the investigators wanted to extract incriminating statements from them.

He said the accused had the right not to speak under Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution. If this right was to be curtailed, a separate law under Article 19 (2) had to be enacted which did not happen.

Article 20 (3) also guaranteed that no person could be compelled to be an accused against himself by asking him to give statements.

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