ICAI President doubts veracity of Raju's letter

The apex chartered accountants body, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) President Ved Jain today expressed doubts over the veracity of even the confessional letter written by Satyam Computer Services former Chairman B Ramalinga Raju.

"I have not been able to understand as an accountant how this can be correct. This letter does not make out what he (Raju) is explaining. Rs 5,000 crore cannot be created over night, what his accountants were doing, there must be a chain of accountants," Jain said.

The letter written by Raju to the company's board talked about inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore.

"I believe this letter is not the whole truth, this is my perception there can be much more beyond this," Jain said.

Raju has also said in his letter that none of his board members, past or present, had any knowledge of the situation, in which the company is placed.

"Even business leaders and senior executives in the company...are unaware of the real situation as against the books of accounts," the letter has further said.

Jain said as an accountant, he believes that in a big organisation like that of Satyam Computer, it cannot be a handiwork of one person.

"I am not ready to believe Raju's version that only he was involved. Many people would have been involved in the fraud. And if many people are involved, the fraud should have been detected, it is unfortunate that it was not detected," Jain said.

It could be known only after investigation how many people were involved in the fraud, he said.