Court rejects Rajus bail plea

The sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate today dismissed the bail plea of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani.

The defence argued that the circumstances had changed ever since his clients were questioned by the CID during the police custody. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office too had questioned the Raju brothers and, therefore, there was no need for them to be in prison. They would continue to cooperate with various investigating agencies after the bail was granted.

To this, the public prosecutor said there was no change in circumstances as there was a lot to be investigated into the Rs 7,800-crore financial scam.

The court also allowed the Income-Tax department to question Ramalinga Raju on February 21 from 10.30 am to 5 pm. The I-T department said it would confront Ramalinga Raju with the documents already submitted to the department. It would try to establish the veracity of the various documents.

Earlier in the day, the court allowed Sebi to record the statements of Srinivas Vadlamani today and Price Waterhouse auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri on February 19.

Following this, the Sebi counsel filed a petition saying that half day had lapsed when the court pronounced its orders and that it required more time to question the former CFO. Later, the court said Sebi could question Vadlamani on February 20.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Price Waterhouse auditors filed a fresh petition seeking bail for them.