The much-awaited prosecution proceedings in the multi-crore Satyam fraud case against its founder,B Ramalinga Raju,and others by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will begin this month,corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed said on the sidelines of a CII conference today. The corporate affairs ministrys investigating arm has already submitted an additional investigation report to the ministry elaborating violations related to the Companies Act by the Raju brothers and other company executives. The first investigation report was submitted by the SFIO in April. However,the ministry had ordered an additional probe in August asking for further details. During this month,the SFIO will begin prosecution in those areas of the companies law that the SFIO is expected to and has been authorised to proceed with, Khursheed told reporters here. It has been nearly a year since Raju disclosed the Rs 10,000 crore accounting fraud in the account books of the IT firm and the government ordered an SFIO probe into the matter. Raju confessed manipulating accounts of Satyam Computer Services and inflating the companys profit for several years. Soon after ordering the SFIO probe,the government had also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate to investigate other aspects like money laundering and siphoning of funds. The SFIO has levied 32 charges of Companies Act violation against Raju,his brother Rama Raju,Satyams ex-chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas,and partners of the companys former auditor Price Waterhouse S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri. The SFIO will file a complaint petition and then the proceedings of the case would start in the special court designated by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The CBI,which is probing further for links of siphoning of funds,is expected to file additional chargsheet soon while the ED is looking into money laundering aspects.
