Ramalinga Raju's hasty arrest stalled probe: SEBI

15 Jan 2009


HYDERABAD: Pradyumana Kumar Reddy, lawyer of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on Wednesday stirred a hornet's nest by saying that
the judicial custody of disgraced Satyam Computer promoter B Ramalinga Raju was delaying the market regulator's probe into the case.

Reddy's statement fuelled rumours already doing the rounds, with many alleging that Raju was arrested in haste to prevent/delay his interrogation by SEBI. It is being pointed out that SEBI, rather than the local police, which has the expertise required to carry out investigations.

Reddy told TOI that SEBI's general manager Sunil Kumar, appointed as the investigating authority in the case, landed in Hyderabad on January 8, within 24 hours of Raju's confession of a Rs 7,000-crore fraud. While SEBI had issued summons to Raju to appear in Satyam's office on January 9 at 4.30pm, he refrained from attending in person and had his lawyer S Bharat Kumar represent him.

The same night, Raju was arrested. "If the investigating authority could have recorded his statement on January 9, it would have been able to submit the same at the earliest to the executive director," Reddy said.

The application seeking permission to record Raju's statement was filed by SEBI on January 12, on the same day when his bail application was filed by his lawyer and the police sought his judicial custody. SEBI's plea will come up for hearing on January 16 along with his bail plea.

The statement came even as officials of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) raided Satyam's Mayfair office in Secunderabad on Wednesday even as personnel from the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) swooped down on the company's corporate office in the city.

Significantly, Ramakrishna G, the assistant of Satyam's former CFO Srinivas Vadlamani, was questioned again by both SFIO and Sebi officials on Wednesday. He had been let off by the cops after interrogation.