Satyam scam case: CBI seeks to reduce witnesses, documents

After being rapped by the Supreme Court for filing a bulky chargesheet and presenting over six hundred witnesses in Satyam scam, the CBI today said it will reduce number of documents to 1,000 and witnesses to 300 once their petition to do so was approved by the court concerned.

"We have moved a petition under section 294 of the CrPC to get some of the documents marked. So that it reduces number of documents and witnesses. Total 697 witnesses are filed in the chargesheet and we are of the opinion that around three hundred witnesses will do. Number of documents are about 3067. Once the petition gets through, they will reduce to almost one thousand," CBI DIG Lakshmi Narayana told media persons here.

The Apex Court while cancelling bail granted by Andhra Pradesh High Court to disgraced Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju recently said if the courts have to examine so many witnesses then the trial cannot be completed in reasonable time.

Replying to question on Mahindra Satyam results, Narayana said the agency may use whatever information is useful from the results for the trial.

Meanwhile, a local court, which is trying the multi-crore accounting scam today examined a witness, who was signatory in Panchanama conducted after the crime branch, which initially investigated the case before it was handed over to the CBI, seized some documents from PriceWaterHouse on last February.

The witness Singu Yoganand, who is a state government employee, said the CID had seized around 1600 documents on February 10 last year, on which he had signed.

He however informed the court that he was not shown any search warrant by the CID to conduct searches in the premises.

The CID had seized bank documents pertaining to Satyam Computers from the auditors, PriceWaterHouse.

The sleuths seized confirmation letters from various banks including ICICI, HDF, HSBC and City bank on bank balances and fixed deposits of Satyam Computers.