Satyam scam: Ramalinga Raju sentenced to 7 years in jail, fined Rs 5 crore

TNN

Hyderabad, 09 Apr 2015: Six years after the biggest accounting fraud shook the corporate world in India, Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju was on Thursday sentenced to 7 years in jail and was fined Rs 5 crore by a special court in Hyderabad.

 

Nine other accused were also sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment. Raju had already spent 32 months in jail.

 

Earlier in the day, Raju and nine others were found guilty by the court on charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating in the Rs 7000 crore scam.

 

Except Raju’s another brother B Suryanarayana Raju and former internal chief auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta, all the others eight accused were found guilty under IPC sections 467, 468, 471 and 477A, relating to forgery of security, forgery for purpose of cheating and falsification of accounts, according to V Chandrashekhar, Superintendent of Police, CBI Hyderabad Zone.

 

While the accounting fraud was to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore, it had caused an estimated notional loss of Rs 14,000 crore to investors and unlawful gains of Rs 1900 crore to Raju and others.

 

Ramalinga Raju and his brother and Satyam’s former managing director B Rama Raju were also found guilty under section 409 of IPC relating to criminal breach of trust.

 

All the ten accused were present in the court, where media was not allowed, when the verdict was pronounced.

 

After pronouncing the order, the judge directed the CBI to take all the accused into custody.

 

Touted as the country’s biggest accounting fraud, the Satyam scam had come to light on January 7, 2009, after the firm’s founder and then Chairman Ramalinga Raju allegedly confessed to manipulating his company’s account books and inflating profits over many years.

 

Raju was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police’s Crime Investigation Department two days later after he allegedly confessed to the fraud, along with his brother Rama Raju and others.

 

Around 3,000 documents were marked and 226 witnesses examined during the trial that began nearly six years back.

 

Besides Ramalinga Raju, the others accused are - B Rama Raju, former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas, former PwC auditors Subramani Gopalakrishnan and T Srinivas, Suryanarayana Raju, former employees G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and Ch Srisailam and Satyam’s former internal chief auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta.

 

Satyam was purchased by Mahindra & Mahindra owned company Tech Mahindra in April, 2009.