CBI to seek details of Raju's bank accounts in US

The central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the multi-crore financial scam in Satyam Computer, will soon approach the US authorities to get the details of the IT company’s disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju’s bank accounts there.

Sources said the CBI, which would be filing a chargesheet on Raju and other accused in the scam next week, would send Letters Rogatory to the US Justice Department, seeking details of Raju’s accounts in Bank of Baroda’s New York branch.

They said the CBI would also seek the help of the US Treasury Department to obtain the details of Raju and his kins’ accounts, believed to be in Bank of America.

The details of the accounts, after being procured, would be submitted before the court in Hyderabad later, sources said.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) had submitted a petition in a Hyderabad court “as regards to current account maintained in Bank of Baroda’s New York branch, and a non-existent balance of Rs 1,733 crore has been found till date”.

A supplementary chargesheet would be filed after receiving information from abroad. The CBI had said last night that the first chargesheet in Satyam would be filed on April 9 against Raju and other accused, a process which may lead to the beginning of the trial in the multi-crore accounting fraud case.

“We will be filing a chargesheet on April 9, but the investigations into the case would continue even after that,” CBI Director Ashwani Kumar had said and had added that the confession made by Raju would also form a part of the evidence in the chargesheet.

The CBI, which set up a multi-disciplinary investigation team, including officials from the Income-Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, Reserve Bank of India, among others, claimed that the money involved in the scam was nearly Rs 10,000 crore, more than what was stated by Raju in January.

Sources said the CBI retrieved over 7,000 fake invoices and forged documents showing fixed deposits and bank balances and their evaluation shows that the size of the scam is over Rs 9,600 crore.

The CBI is also looking at the role of front companies in rotating funds, the sources said, adding that the conduct of the regulators is also being investigated and, if need be, some officials may be probed.