Is Suryanarayana Raju holed up in Chennai?

22 Feb 2009

HYDERABAD: Has B Suryanarayana Raju, the absconding sibling of Ramalinga Raju, fled to Chennai? Reliable sources indicate that Suryanarayana, who investigating agencies have been looking for since last week, is presently holed up in a guest house in the Tamil Nadu capital. The sources said that this information was passed on to the CID at the same time as it was to this newspaper on Monday evening.

Those close to the family said that Suryanarayana's disappearance was sudden. "He went by road as he feared he would be arrested if he took a flight apprehending police presence at the airport,'' said a source close to the family.

Suryanarayana Raju is the little known second brother of Ramalinga Raju, but is now being found to have been the pointsman for major land dealings. This is precisely why investigating agencies are looking for him. CID officials say that Suryanarayana can come in handy to determine the origin of the Satyam fraud and may even be able to give clues to the money missing from Satyam's balance sheets.

SRSR Holding's general manager D V Gopala Krishnam Raju who was questioned last week by cops has reportedly confessed that it was Suryanarayana Raju who had instructed him to shift and conceal all the land documents. This is why the CID has all the more reason to chase him down. Suryanarayana was a director of this company, whose office was raided .

The CID had started looking for Suryanarayana last week, when it also raided his offices and residence. However, the younger sibling of Ramalinga Raju was "not accessible'' to them. Sources close to the family could not ascertain when exactly Suryanarayana would have fled from Hyderabad.

Nevertheless, it was also learnt that the guest house where Suryanarayana is being put up belongs to a relative of the Raju family. Sources close to the family guessed that Suryanarayana would have gone in a friend's car since all his vehicles remain parked at his residence in Satyam Enclave on the Medchal highway. Some family members were even looking for the driver who drove Suryanarayana to Chennai.

While the other two Raju brothers have held centrestage all these years, Suryanarayana Raju's role is said to have been limited to handling land dealings and liaising with politicians to get deals done. The third Raju did not study as much as his brothers who flaunt degrees from international universities.

Meanwhile, father-in-law of Rama Raju (senior) D S Raju who lives in Sundaram block has also moved out of the building after the marathon raids conducted by the CID there. Residents of Ramaraja Nagar said that his house was locked and he was not to be seen for the last two days.