SEBI probe into Raju fraud on; AP cops to seek police custody

NEW DELHI: Amid speculation on whether Satyam's disgraced founder Ramalinga Raju would keep his date with SEBI investigating team this evening, the regulator said the brief to its team to probe the Rs 7,800 crore accounting fraud was very clear.

The Andhra Pradesh police, which arrested Raju and his brother Rama Raju on different charges including forgery and cheating last night, said that the SEBI team would have to file a request with the Economic Offences Court to interrogate the two.

"We will seek police custody of Raju and Rama Raju... SEBI they have to file a request in the Economic Offences Court to interrogate them," Additional DG-CID A Sivanarayana said in Hyderabad.

"We have given the investigation team a brief on Satyam as required," SEBI Chairman C B Bhave said over telephone when asked if the investigating team would also get details from RBI which is reported to have asked various banks including Citi for credit details of Satyam.

On whether the investigating team that reached Hyderabad on Thursday would question Raju this evening as stated by his lawyer Bharat Kumar, Bhave said that he was not tracking the development minute-by-minute.

The SEBI team had gone to Raju's house yesterday and had separately issued summons to him. But Bharat Kumar appeared before the team instead of Raju and later told reporters that the Satyam founder would appear before SEBI at 1600 hrs today.