Raju files plea seeking original charge sheet

The counsel for the disgraced former chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju has filed a petition in a local court seeking some of the original documents of the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the multi-crore accounting fraud in the IT firm.

In an application, the counsel requested the court to make available some of the crucial original documents of the charge sheet for examination as the photocopies provided earlier were not readable, CBI prosecutor T Venkat Ramana said. “The matter in this regard will come up in the court on August 19,” he said.

The charge sheet in the case was filed by the CBI on April 7, and a copy was handed over to the defence counsels in the court on May 5.

The copy of the charge sheet includes 1,532 original documents, lists of witnesses and copies of statements recorded among other documents.

Meanwhile, in another development, the court dismissed a plea by Ramalinga Raju’s sons, Teja Raju and Rama Raju, for defreezing their bank accounts and for returning properties seized during searches, the CBI counsel said.

The court said the applications were premature as the investigation agency was still in the process of collecting information from forensic experts on the seized articles.

Teja Raju, vice-chairman of Maytas Infra, had prayed the court in a petition in May to defreeze three saving bank accounts in HDFC banks in the city, while his brother Rama Raju, vice-chairman of Maytas Properties, had sought direction on return of electronic articles seized by the CID from his Jubilee Hills residence, stating that the CDs, computers and pen drives have study material for his wife’s MA thesis.