In a confession mode, disgraced founder and former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju has admitted of diverting Satyam funds to his two real estate firms Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties since 2004, according to the police sources. This leads to an interesting development as the two companies had earlier negated that they have received any funds from Satyam.

It is learnt that Raju, who was grilled on Wednesday for the fourth day by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials, reportedly confessed of using the Satyam funds to buy prime land in and around Hyderabad.

CID sources said Raju told interrogators funds were diverted during the past four to five years. The police sources said Raju was cooperative during the interrogation and the questioning has yielded these crucial facts.

He accepted that he had cooked the accounts books for over several years resulting in inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balance. He reiterated this during CID interrogation soon after his arrest on January 9. But investigations have now revealed that a big chunk of this money existed but was diverted to other firms.

There are reports that Raju swindled money through 6,000 fake salary accounts for last few years. Sources said he had created these accounts in four banks to divert the funds from fixed deposits. Some of these funds were flowed through his accounts in foreign banks. With Raju confessing to diversion of funds, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and Registrar of Companies (RoC) are now trying to trace a Mauritius-based company used for channelising the money to Maytas, according to local reports. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh CID has sought extension of custody of B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju and the firm’s ex-CFO V Srinivas by three days. The petition to this effect was filed in the court of sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate and would come up for hearing on Thursday, prosecution lawyer Gangaraj Prasad. The court had granted police custody of the trio from January 18 to January 22. The extension of custody is necessary as the interrogation requires more time, Prasad said.

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