ED records former Satyam officials statement in fraud case

HYDERABAD: Following a local court order, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today began recording the statements of four Satyam accused in the multi-crore financial fraud in the IT firm, officials said.

A three-member ED team (from Hyderabad) led by its Deputy Director N Sridhar began recording the statements of four former Satyam employees in presence of their counsels at the Chanchalguda Central Prison premises here, where the accused are under judicial remand, they said.

A Special Court trying the Satyam scam cases last week permitted the ED to examine V S Prabhakar Gupta, who was posted as Senior Vice-President-cum-Global Head of Internal Audit cell in Mahindra Satyam, G Ramakrishna, then Vice-President (Finance), D Venkatapathi Raju (Senior Manager Finance) and Ch Srisailam (Assistant Manager) in Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SCSL).

The ED team will question the former Satyam employees for four days from today to April 29 between 10.30 am to 5 pm.

The Directorate wants to examine the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and to learn how Satyam's accounts were manipulated and how the money was routed, sources said.