Ramalinga Raju surrenders, no bail till end-July

Satyam Computer Services Ltd founder B Ramalinga Raju, key accused in the financial irregularities at the company, and five others today surrendered before the special court, here.

The Supreme Court order on October 26 had directed the accused to surrender before the special court on or before November 10. The Supreme Court had cancelled their bail pleas after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court order granting them bail. Raju was granted bail on August 18 and the other five on July 20.

The five are his brother and former managing director of Satyam Rama Raju, former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani, former vice-president (finance) G Ramakrishna, former senior manager (finance) D Venkatapathy Raju and former assistant (finance) Ch Srisailam.

They will not be able to apply for bail till July 31, 2011 — the deadline set by the Supreme Court for the special court to complete the trial. They will be at liberty to approach the high court for bail in case the trial is not complete by then.

It may be recalled that PW auditors, S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, and former Satyam employee Prabhakar Gupta had secured bail earlier, while Raju's other brother, Suryanarayana Raju, got anticipatory bail.

On November 9, the Supreme Court did not allow the petitions of Raju and the five accused seeking four weeks to surrender.

Raju cited ill-health for bail before the apex court. He told the court he was discharged from the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences here on October 2 and therefore needed time to recover. Others said they were the breadearners and needed time to make arrangements for their dependents.

HDFC Bank officials depose
Meanwhile, two HDFC Bank officials who deposed before the court today said the seized documents submitted by the CBI for verification did not match their records.

C S Gopinath, HDFC Bank zonal head, citing an instance of records not matching with those of the bank, told the court that one 'fixed deposit advise' in December 2008 had a signature of an official who left the organisation much before. Also, the number and amount of the fixed deposits did not match with the bank records.

T L N Raghuram, state head, said there were discrepancies in the debt and credit transactions. The details referred by the CBI for verification did not match with the bank records, he said. Tomorrow, an official of Citi is likely to depose before the court.