SEBI moves SC in bid to gain access to Raju

NEW DELHI: Frustrated by the perplexing refusal of a trial court in Andhra Pradesh to let the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) question disgraced former Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju, the stock market regulator on Monday moved Supreme Court to gain access to the alleged mastermind of the country���s biggest-ever corporate fraud.

Appearing for SEBI, solicitor general G E Vahanvati told a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam that there was an urgent need to question Raju and his brother B Rama Raju, the former managing director of Satyam.

Significantly, while the plea is primarily against the trial court���s refusal to let Sebi interrogate Raju, it appeared to reflect widespread apprehension that SEBI might not get the required cooperation from the Andhra Pradesh police against the politically influential promoters of Satyam.

Indeed, this paper has published a number of reports over the past month highlighting the fact that the CID, which was given the job of interrogating Raju, has no expertise in investigating sophisticated financial crimes, such as the one in Satyam.

With SEBI repeatedly being denied access to Raju, there���s a growing sense that the state government is actually seeking to protect Raju. There���s even a strong theory, again reported by this paper, that Raju surrendered before the police to pre-empt prosecution by US investors and regulatory agencies as well as federal Indian authorities such as SEBI.

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy���s government has been accused of promoting Maytas, another Raju company, by awarding it contracts, including that of Hyderabad Metro, the route of which was allegedly aligned to suit the interests of the contractor. Faced with rising allegations , Reddy was recently constrained to declare that he was open to a CBI probe.