Raju was trying to protect Satyam: Wife

Friday, March 27, 2009

Almost three months after India's biggest corporate fraud broke out, investigators looking into the Satyam case are still struggling to find answers to why Ramalinga Raju did what he did.

If the intention was to make too much money, then where is that money? If he diverted the funds, where is the money sitting right now? In the city of Hyderabad, Raju has become a villain and the poster boy of bad corporate governance, but it is not surprising that even now, his wife, Nandini Raju, is not willing to desert him.

While it was difficult to convince her to speak on camera, NDTV did manage to speak with her on issues relating to her husband's alleged misdeeds and the trauma and life beyond Satyam.

On being asked why did Raju disclose everything on January 7, what happened, was there a particular reason, she replied that she came to know only one day before Raju wrote the letter and both the sons came to know about it through television on that day.

“Whatever Raju did, was to protect Satyam. He considered the company his baby and nurtured the company. He knew the company would go completely bankrupt and whatever is happening with Satyam now, they say, is exactly what he wanted.

To have a stable board and ensure that employees were secure and clients would stay. That's why he decided to disclose this now,” she further said.To a question on her say about the allegation that her husband's debacle is due to his excessive love for his sons and Maytas, She reacted that Raju did not help his sons by taking any money from Satyam and that no money had been diverted to either of the Maytas companies.

“Maytas Infra has enough money to execute all their projects on hand, but if various agencies are going to freeze everything how do they expect Maytas to function? If the government allows them to function, only then can they operate. If they give Maytas the opportunity, the companies will execute each project they have on hand,” she said.