Court permits ED to record statements of Raju, others

A city court today permitted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record the statements of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and other accused in the multi-crore rupee fraud in the IT company.

The XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in his orders permitted the ED to question Raju, his brother and Satyam's former Managing Director Rama Raju, ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas and former auditors of Price Waterhouse - S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, for eight days from June 9 to June 16.

The ED will question and record the statements of Satyam accused from 10 am to 5 pm in the presence of their defence counsels at the Chanchalguda jail here, where the accused are under judicial remand.

The ED on April 6 had filed an application seeking the court's permission to record the statements of Ramalinga Raju and others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Directorate wants to examine the accused to learn how Satyam's accounts were manipulated and how the money was routed. 

Earlier, the Central agencies including CBI, SEBI, SFIO and Andhra Pradesh CID interrogated Raju brothers and other Satyam accused.

The ICAI also quizzed Vadlamani Srinivas, S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, after the country's biggest accounting fraud in the IT major came to light in early January this year.