CBI charges mount, but no talk of fund diversion

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the Satyam Computer Sciences Limited (SCSL) accounting fraud case, has so far examined 733 witnesses and gathered 3,081 documents as part of its effort to unfold the biggest corporate fraud in the country.

The premier investigation agency’s documentation runs into 120,000 pages, and has been submitted to a local court here in 25 boxes, each measuring 3 metres long and 1.5 feet in width and height. However, it is yet to submit evidence regarding the “suspected” large-scale diversion of funds by Satyam founder, B Ramalinga Raju, and his associates.

In its 300-page original chargesheet filed on April 7, CBI charges against the accused pertained to conspiracy, cheating, forgery, falsification of records and causing disappearance of evidence but not siphoning off funds.

In the supplementary chargesheet filed on November 24, 2009, the CBI had stated that Raju and his associates had diverted an amount of Rs 72.5 lakh from the accounts of Satyam into the front companies owned by them. This is hardly a significant amount considering that the Satyam scam involved thousands of crores. Besides, according to the CBI, this diversion took place in the year 1999, over eight years before Raju confessed to the accounting fraud at the then fourth largest IT company in the country.

CBI deputy inspector general of police, VV Lakshmi Narayana, told Business Standard investigations were still going on regarding diversion of funds by Satyam promoters. The CBI would be filing separate chargesheets on this aspect and also on the “fraud perpetrated by the accused with regard to IT returns of Satyam Computers,” he said.

In his confessional statement on January 7, 2009, the Satyam founder stated that neither he nor his brother and former managing director, B Rama Raju, “took even one rupee/dollar from the company and benefitted in financial terms on account of the inflated results.”

The CBI, however, said the Satyam promoters had benefitted on account of inflated results. Raju and his family members have “wrongfully gained because of falsification of accounts,” it said, adding they had received an amount of Rs 749 crore by offloading shares during 1999-2006 by “artificially inflating the share prices of M/s SCSL.”