CBI chief calls on senior officials at Satyam

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths, led by its director Ashwini Kumar, met senior officials of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, now rebranded as Mahindra Satyam, at its headquarters here on Friday.

“The CBI team was here to get first-hand information on the possible acquaintance of some staff with the company’s (jailed) founder, Ramalinga Raju. We don’t know further details of the closed-door meeting, as about 30 CBI security personnel cordoned off the entire office area. Several officials of the company, along with some senior management members, were present in the meeting,” a company source said.

He indicated the CBI team was likely to visit the IT outsourcing major’s headquarters again in a day or two. The CBI chief arrived here on Thursday to review the progress made by the bureau on its investigation into the multi-crore accounting fraud at Satyam.

Meanwhile, a petition filed by legal counsel for Ramalinga Raju yesterday, asking for quashing of the July 9 order of a lower court which allowed the CBI to conduct a lie detector test (polygraph test) and brain mapping (F300 testing) on Raju and his brother and former managing director B Rama Raju, and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani, all accused in the multi-crore scam, came up for hearing today.

Raju’s counsel contended the tests violated fundamental rights of the accused and would subject them to pressure. The confessions, anyway, would not be admissible in court. The CBI counsel sought time till July 27 from the court to file a reply. He told the court it would not conduct the tests till July 30. The CBI feels crores of rupees were also misappropriated from Satyam, for which they have yet to get proof. The accused, on whom the forensic tests were to be conducted, did not reveal the information with regard to the alleged defalcation and therefore, these were necessary to aid in the investigation.

The lower court felt it was a fit case to agree to allow the lie detector test and brain mapping.