Raju to appear in court: Plea to come up for hearing tomorrow

The affidavit of the former Chairman of Satyam Computer, B Ramalinga Raju, offering to personally appear before a local court for examination in the multi-crore rupee accounting fraud at the IT firm, will come up for hearing tomorrow.

Raju, the prime accused in the Satyam scam, is undergoing treatment for Hepatitis-C at NIMS Hospital here and has not been attending court proceedings since last September.

Raju, in a memo filed through his counsel last week in the XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACCM) court, had sought to 'dispel' the impression on his part and said he would appear before the court in person even 'at the cost of risk to his health'.

Raju's counsel said his client was compelled to file this memo in view of the contention of the prosecution (CBI) and unnecessary propaganda in the media that he (Raju) was purposefully delaying the process of trial.

The memo said Raju was in hospital for treatment not by choice.

The court wants to examine all the ten accused, including Raju, following two CBI chargesheets, before commencing the trial and had last week adjourned the matter to August 11, following a request by one of the accused.

Magistrate B V L N Chakravarti had earlier said Raju will be examined through a questionnaire that will be served on him through his counsel at the hospital, while the remaining nine accused would be examined in the court itself.

All the accused in the case except Raju are out on bail. They all are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts after the accounting scam broke in January, 2009.