CBI team in Mauritius to probe multi-crore scam

Top officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are in Mauritius as part of the investigation into the multi-crore Satyam scam, which its founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed to in January. The CBI team will question several people there on the possible diversion of funds from the company to Mauritius.

According to sources, the officials include CBI DIG Lakshminarayana and Superintendent of Police Krishna along with a few other officials of the multi-disciplinary investigation team. They will return to Hyderabad on Sunday or Monday.

Mauritius is the first among the six countries to respond to the Letters Rogatory (LRs) — a formal request to a foreign court seeking judicial assistance — in the case. The CBI officials will later visit the US, the UK, Singapore, Belgium and the British Virgin Islands in connection with the case. It is said that they will question 25-30 people, including some Satyam employees, in each country.

Meanwhile, the AP High Court on Friday reserved orders on the bail petition of Price Waterhouse auditor Srinivas Talluri to October 28. The court heard the arguments for the second successive day. The auditor’s counsel said trial would be completed faster if CBI filed separate chargesheets instead of bundling it together with Raju’s case.

In addition, a Division Bench of the High Court will give orders on CBI seeking permission to conduct lie detector (polygraph) and F300 testing (brain mapping) on Raju, former managing director Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani on October 26.