Satyam Fraud: Ramalinga Raju, co-convict to contest court's verdict

HYDERABAD: Four days after the CBI special court convicted Satyam Computer's founder Ramalinga Raju and co-accused in India's largest accounting fraud and sentenced them to seven years rigorous imprisonment, Raju and the co-convicted moved the sessions court on Monday, contesting the trial court's verdict. On Thursday, the trial court judge BVLN Chakravarthi pronounced the verdict after more than 50 months of trail, finding all the accused guilty of fraud. Police took all the convicts into custody and moved them to Cherlapally central jail on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the same day.

A person close to Ramalinga Raju told ET, “Raju will contest the verdict and appeal to the sessions court, not only seeking to dismiss the verdict of the trial court but also grant bail.” Audit firm Price Waterhouse, in a statement on the day of trial court's verdict, said it was disappointed with the verdict and that its former partners — Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri — are considering an appeal against the verdict. CBI's special public prosecutor K Surendra said the investigating agency would oppose bail to Raju and nine other convicts in the sessions court, adding a decision on whether to appeal to the sessions court judge for more rigorous sentence will be taken shortly. One of Raju's associates said they were preparing to appeal first before the sessions court, with an option to move the high court and Supreme Court against the trial court's order.

Raju and associates had already spent nearly 30 months in judicial custody after they were taken into custody within weeks from his confession on January 7, 2009, to have cooked the books for years for at least Rs 7,136 crore. Raju and others had obtained bail during the last quarter of 2011 and appeared before the trial court for nearly 50 months. The other convicted in the fraud include two of Raju's brothers — then managing director Rama Raju and Suryanarayana Raju. Others include the then chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani and two auditors of Price Waterhouse — S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, who signed off accounts of the company for years.