Court turns down SEBI's plea to quiz Rajus

Hyderabad, Jan 23: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)'s plea to question scam hit Satyam Computers founder Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju was rejected by a city court on Friday, Jan 23. The court also refuse to entertain another petition by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office.

The 6th additional chief metropolitan magistrate rejected SEBI's plea for Raju brothers custody for a day. It returned the plea filed by SFIO as 'not maintainable' SFIO seeked six days custody of Ramalinga Raju and Satyam's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas.

Court extended the trio's judicial custody till Jan 31. The bail applications of Ramalinga Raju and Srinivas will be heard on Jan 27 and that of Rama Raju on Jan 28. K Ajay Kumar, the Public Prosecutor opposed Raju's bail plea, contending that he was supposed to be a watchdog of public money, but betrayed the trust by fudging accounts.

He said, "The crime he (Ramalinga Raju) committed was grave and heinous." The Raju brothers were arrested on Jan 9 and Srinivas on Jan 10. Ramalinga Raju disclosed 7,000 crore accounting fraud on Jan 7 giving shock to entire India and India IT industry.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)