The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked R Rama Raju, brother of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, and two others to reply by end of the month to the show-cause notices issued to them in connection with the multi-crore accounting fraud case in the IT company. It has also allowed Rama Raju and others, including Vadlamani Srinivas and G Ramakrishna, to inspect the documents available with the regulator on October 14 and has fixed the date for personal hearing on November 7.

Other accused persons, Ramalinga Raju and V S Prabhakara Gupta, had earlier sought adjournment of the hearing.

Sebi allowed the persons involved in the Satyam case to inspect the documents following submissions by the counsels that their clients were in jail and had no access to records of company, necessary for responding to show cause notices issued by the regulator. While Srinivas was the chief financial officer of the Satyam Computer Services, Ramakrishna functioned as cost accountant. Gupta too has been associated with the company. Sebi had issued show-cause notices to various persons involved in the Satyam fraud case which came to light after admission of fudging of accounts by its founder Ramalinga Raju in January.

Though Sebi had fixed a hearing on October 10, Ramalinga Raju and Prabhakara Gupta were not represented. Counsel for Rama Raju, Srinivas and Ramakrishna submitted that they were not able to reply to the show-cause notices as their clients were in judicial custody and have not yet been released on bail. They submitted that their clients do not have access to the records of the company and such access is required before they can respond in any manner to the allegations in the show-cause notices.

... contd.