CBI concludes questioning of Raju, others in Satyam scam

The CBI probing the multi-crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computer today completed the questioning of seven of the accused, including the IT firm's founder B Ramalinga Raju, even as all of them denied charges of fund diversion to foreign countries.

"As of now we have completed the questioning of Satyam accused over fund diversion aspect. If required we will again summon them in the future. All of them (including Raju) have denied diversion of funds from Satyam to other countries, CBI DIG V V Lakshmi Narayana, who headed the team that grilled the accused, told PTI.

Besides Raju, the prime accused, Satyam's former Managing Director B Rama Raju, ex-Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas and former employees - G Ramakrishna, Venkatpathy Raju, Ch Srisailam and Prabhakar Gupta - were questioned for almost the whole day with regard to alleged diversion of funds abroad.

The CBI has been questioning Raju since Tuesday, while the other accused were quizzed over the past two days.

With regard to the alleged fund diversion, the CBI had sent letters rogatory to six countries. The UK, USA, Singapore and Malaysia had sent part replies while response from Belgium and British Virgin Islands was awaited.

During the questioning, the CBI also tried to extract details regarding parking of funds in various countries since 1999, sources in the probe agency said.

The restated accounts presented by the software major's new owners, Mahindra Satyam, indicated possible diversion of funds aggregating $41 million so far from the proceeds of the ADS (American Depository Shares) which were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2001.

The forensic audit revealed the diversion of funds -- payments to banks worth $22 million, payments of $9 million to other entities as well as cash outflows to the tune of $10 million to unidentified beneficiaries.

The over Rs 7,000-crore fraud, the biggest in India's corporate history, came to light in January last year.