Satyam case: Ramalinga Raju moves sessions court against conviction

HYDERABAD: Satyam Computer founder B Ramalinga Raju and nine others have moved a sessions court here challenging their conviction in the multi-crore accounting fraud at the erstwhile IT firm.

The Hyderabad High Court had on April 30 declined to admit appeals filed by Raju and others against their conviction, observing it was not maintainable before it and asked them to move sessions court.

Raju, the scam kingpin, and nine other convicts, currently lodged in Cherlapally Central Prison, yesterday filed the appeals in the Metropolitan Sessions Judge (MSJ) court, which is likely to take up the matter tomorrow.

They had earlier moved the high court, praying to set aside a trial court order convicting them in the over Rs 7,000-crore scandal that came to light in 2009.

However, the high court had said the "appeals lie only before a court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge (MSJ)" and directed the petitioners to approach it as the same are not maintainable before the high court.

The sessions court had on April 20 refused to accept appeal petitions filed by Raju and nine others (challenging the trial court verdict) and returned them as not maintainable before it on the grounds that it has no jurisdiction to hear them and asked the 10 convicts to move the high court.

The appeals were earlier filed by Raju and others in the MSJ court, requesting it to quash the trial court's verdict and also for seeking bail.

On April 9, the trial court, which tried the corporate fraud case probed by CBI, sentenced Raju and others, including his brother Rama Raju, to seven years rigorous imprisonment for criminal conspiracy and cheating, among other offences. It had also imposed a Rs 5.5-crore fine on Raju and his brother Rama Raju.