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Sebi plea to quiz Raju hits one more roadblock
Andhra Pradesh’s high court adjourned until February 9 the hearing on the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s petition seeking permission to question deposed Satyam Chairman B Ramalinga Raju, reports Ashok Das.
It seems to be an endless wait for market regulator Sebi in its quest to interrogate the Raju brothers held in the Satyam Computer Services fraud.
Andhra Pradesh’s high court on Friday adjourned until February 9 the hearing on the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) petition seeking permission to question deposed Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju, who are under the custody of Andhra Pradesh’s Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).
Sebi says several allegations including the possibility of insider trading have to be investigated.
Though the agency shuffled its legal team by hiring a new lawyer at Hyderabad and rushed in Solicitor-General of India G. Vahanvati to pilot its case, there is no luck in Sebi’s quest to get its teeth into the details of the case involving the country’s biggest corporate accounting fraud.
A single-judge bench of Justice Seshasayana Reddy issued notices on Sebi’s plea to the two Raju brothers and the superintendent of Chanchalaguda central jail, where they are lodged. They have to respond by February 9.
'The judge said he will not pass the order without hearing them (the Rajus and the prison superintendent),' Vahanvati said.
A Sebi team arrived in Hyderabad on January 8 just after the fraud hit the headlines following a candid confession of accounting malpractices by Raju.
