Satyam probe: CID begins scrutinizing data

Posted: Feb 09

Satyam's Murty gives pep talk to employeesHyderabad: The CID has started the pain-staking process of scrutinizing electronic data that runs into terabytes that has been recovered from personal laptops of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju his brother Rama Raju and former chief financial officer V Srinivas, and several computers of Satyam Computer Services.

"The electronic data itself is in terabytes which will take at least two months for our cyber experts to study. We have got all the land purchase and transactions records intact. We also have original bank statements which prove Raju's lies about fixed deposits," additional director general of police (ADGP) CID A Siva Narayana said. The CID's core investigation team has now been joined by experts from cyber crime cell and AP State Forensic Laboratory. An official from Stamps and Registration office is helping the team in scrutinizing the land records of the Raju family.

A member of the CID investigation team says that within 10 hours of his arrest on January 9, Raju had revealed everything about the Satyam fraud: how he fudged the accounts from 2002 by inflating profits that started with Rs 459 crore and reached Rs 5000 crores by 2007 when the equity remained at a constant of between 6 per cent to 6.2 per cent starting 2002, forgery of bank certificates substantiating non-existent crore worth of fixed deposits in at least six banks.

In his confessions spread over five days, Raju likened his professional and personal life to two ice cream cones. One cone was Satyam Computer Services Limited which he nurtured since 1982 and wanted his company to be reckoned as one of the five top five IT majors in India. He told the CID investigation team that his professional cone reached its zenith when he started being seen with Chief Ministers of various states, Central Ministers and finally, with former US President Bill Clinton.

His real rise in business started with Clinton's visit. His ambitions changed drastically after Clinton's visit, the CID notes in its report that will be the basis of over 1,000 page chargesheet. Neither the Raju family's land dealings was questioned by the office of Commissioner of Stamps and Registration, nor the familiar names in over 300 newly-opened companies that had Hyderabad-based addresses were questioned by the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Based on Raju's revelations, the CID had raided 36 places - residences, flats, offices, farmhouses and safehouses of the Rajus - within ten hours.