Satyam trial begins, first witness examined

The trial in the Satyam Computer Services case began today, with the examining of a witness, S Yoganand, a deputy statistician in the planning department at Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh.

In February 2009, a month after Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju confessed to accounting irregularities at the company, Yoganand, then in the education department, was deputed to accompany the police party on the search and seizure of documents in connection with the investigation into the irregularities. He’d signed the report on what was taken. He told the court there could be 1,500-1,600 documents that could have been seized from the the office premises on February 10 last year. There were various bank statements, he said.

He was cross-examined later by the counsel for Raju. The Central Bureau of Investigation plans to examine six witnesses over a week. Tomorrow, a banker is likely to be depose.

CBI’s argument is that huge amounts of cash and bank balances were fraudulently reflected in the balance sheets of Satyam. It said the nonexistent cash and bank balances were to the tune of Rs 5,020 crore.

Raju’s counsel asked the CBI to give the schedule for a month. CBI said it would give a list of witnesses to be examined till this month end and later update it as the case progressed.

Later, CBI DIG Lakshminarayana, speaking outside the court, said CBI had moved a petition under for marking about 1,000 documents. This would reduce the number of witnesses to be called for examination. Initially, CBI listed 697 witnesses but has since condensed the list by 300.

The Supreme Court had last month asked the special court dealing with the Satyam case to complete the trial by July 31, 2011. Reducing the number of witnesses would speed up the trial, he said.