And now the ED. Satyam remains work in progress

No Agency can put a finger on the date when the prosecution case on the Satyam scam will be completed. Thursday's decision by the Enforcement Directorate orders to freeze Ramalinga Raju's assets on a money laundering charge comes three and a half years after the scam exploded on January 2009. The erstwhile chief of the company made out a confession letter to the stock market regulator that was as methodically clear as the extent of the scam. One could have expected that it would be enough to produce a short and succinct trial to convict the offenders.

It is still a work-in-progress. The only salutary impact of the case has been for all investigative agencies to quote it and get additional funding and powers from the government. The latest is the Serious Fraud Investigation Office that too quoted the case to get on the right side of the Companies Bill.

It would seem the ED is doing the same now. The operative sections of the Act under which Raju is sought to be prosecuted now is still contained in the revised PMLA Bill pending in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill expands the definition of offence under money laundering to include activities like concealment, acquisition, possession and use of proceeds of crime and significantly stock market related crime. This is exactly what the former chief of the Hyderabad based IT company has now been accused of by the ED.

It is also interesting that the Bill removes the cap of a Rs 5 lakh penalty for an offence under PMLA to one without limit. The best part is of course the powers it grants to the ED to transfer a case pending in any court to a special court for trial. There was never any doubt that Ramalinga Raju should be punished for the $1.2 billion crime.

... contd.

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