Supreme Court grants SEBI access to Satyam’s Rajus

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) finally managed to get access to the promoters of scam-hit Satyam Computer Services after the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the market regulator to begin interrogation of Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju in connection with the over Rs7,000 crore accounting fraud at the IT company.

A division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan directed SEBI to also intimate the jail authorities about the duration of the interrogation.

SEBI moved SC weeks after Ramalinga Raju resigned as chairman of Satyam, seeking permission to interrogate the Raju brothers after rejection of its request by the lower courts and the Andhra Pradesh government.

A SEBI probe team had landed in Hyderabad the day after Ramalinga Raju revealed the Rs7,000 crore scam at Satyam Computer Services. But the state government authorities as well as the local court denied the market regulator permission to probe The Satyam fraud, saying it had no powers to investigate.

SEBI approached the apex court for urgent relief after the Andhra Pradesh high court last week deferred hearing on a plea for access to the Raju brothers – Ramalinga and Rama - to 9 February.

SEBI said the delay could be disastrous considering the seriousness of the financial scam which had large-scale national and international ramifications.

The Raju brothers were arrested by the state police on 9 January, the day the SEBI team summoned them to appear before it in Hyderabad.

The two brothers, along with Satyam's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, are now in judicial custody.