CID raids Rajus find land documents

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
22nd jan 2009
The CID has recovered 112 land documents and sale deeds covering hundreds of acres in the name of Mr Ramalinga Raju’s family and benami names during raids on SRSR Holdings at Jubilee Hills and SRSR Advisory Services Private Limited at Begumpet. The documents covered land in Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts.
CID sleuths on Wednesday night raided on the residence of relatives of Mr Ramalinga Raju in Rama Raja Nagar.
The SRSR group of firms is the holding company of the shares of the Rajus. There are seven companies in the name of SRSR, which is believed to stand for Satyanarayana Raju, Suryanarayana Raju. Mr Suryanarayana Raju is the brother of Mr Ramalinga Raju, and Mr Satyanarayana Raju, their relative.
The CID also found that SRSR Holdings Private Limited and SRSR Advisory Services were the part of promoter group of Maytas Infra Limited.
The raids were conducted based on the confessions by the Raju brothers and their aide, Mr Vadlamani Srinivas, former CFO of Satyam.
Following the raids the CID has filed a petition in the CID court seeking extension of police custody of Mr Ramalinga Raju and Mr Srinivas. The police dropped the name of Mr Rama Raju.
The trio has to be produced before the sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday when their police custody ends. Officials of the HDFC Bank, Basheerbagh branch, have written to the CID saying that they have not issued a certificate to Satyam Computers regarding bank deposits. The purported HDFC Bank certificate was found in the file of Satyam auditors.
This is the first proof of the widely-held suspicion that Satyam Computers showed off forged fixed deposit certificates to claim assets that it did not have.
“Certain fixed deposit receipts and bank statements are stated to have been forged and fabricated. The HDFC letter confirms it,” said Mr Balaji Rao, CID DSP, in his petition to the sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate court on Tuesday.
“We have written to other banks to establish the genuineness of deposit receipts and statements and are expecting reply in a day or two,” Mr Rao said. “The creation of bogus invoices, receipts and bank statements by the financial wing of the company is to be verified from the accused.” He said that Mr Ramalinga Raju and Mr Vadlamani Srinivas revealed details of “connivance and collusion of the auditors in fabricating the accounts,” Mr Rao said in the petition.
Mr Rao said documents had been seized during searches but more remained to be seized and scrutinised. The CID is also scrutinising the receipt of money from foreign sources to Mr Raju’s family and their associate companies.
“We have to find out the days on which shares were sold or pledged, and how the amounts were transferred,” a CID official said. “The dates on which the properties were bought have to be verified, as also where the money came from.” The CID is also examining whether the money was transferred through legal banking documents like cheques and drafts or through cash.
CID officials on Wednesday questioned Mr Gopalakrishna and Mr Srinivasa Rao of PricewaterhouseCoopers and let them off. Mr Rao stated in the petition that the medical check-up of the Rajus and breaks for lunch, tea and rest were eating into the time the police had for interrogation. He said, “I strongly believe that some personal computers of the accused have been secreted (away), hidden or destroyed to do away with evidence.”