Satyam Case: Special Court May Announce Verdict Today

A Special Court in Hyderabad is expected to pronounce its verdict in the multi-crore accounting fraud at the Satyam Computer Services on Tuesday. The case, filed by the CBI, is being heard by special court judge BVLN Chakravarthi.

The fraud came to light on January 7, 2009, when Satyam founder and former chairman B Ramalinga Raju allegedly confessed that he had manipulated his company's account books and inflated profits over many years to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Two days later, Mr Raju, his brother and Satyam's former MD B Rama Raju, its former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas and former director Ram Mynampati were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Police.

They were charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and breach of trust for inflating invoices and incomes, account falsification, faking fixed deposits, besides allegedly falsifying returns through violation of various Income Tax laws.

A month later, the CBI took over the investigation and filed three charge sheets (on April 7, 2009, November 24, 2009 and January 7, 2010), which were later clubbed into one.

Around 3,000 documents were marked and 226 witnesses were examined.

Mr Raju later retracted his confession statement and contended that all charges levelled by the CBI were false.

During the trial, the CBI alleged that the scam caused a loss of Rs. 14,000 crore to Satyam shareholders, while the defence countered the charges saying the accused were not responsible for the fraud and all the documents filed by the central agency relating to the case were fabricated and not according to law. All accused are currently out on bail.

The Enforcement Directorate had also filed a charge sheet against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

On Monday, the name of Tech Mahindra was dropped from the case. After the scam broke out, Satyam Computers had merged with Tech Mahindra.