Satyam case: 6 months jail for Raju even as CBI case ruling awaited

The Economic Offences court in Hyderabad on Monday convicted Satyam Computer founder and its former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju , his brother Rama Raju and eight others in a case of fraud filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in 2009, and imposed on them a fine of Rs 5 lakh and 6 months of imprisonment. Those convicted have been given a month to appeal against the ruling.

The order comes even as the judgement in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against Raju and others is yet to be announced. All eyes at the moment are now on the next hearing on December 23 in the CBI probe in Satyam case.

This is before the XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Nampally, Hyderabad. The multi-crore accounting fraud at the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services rocked India Inc five years ago. On January 7, 2009, Raju sent out a letter to Satyam's board members admitting that the books of the company had been cooked.

A couple of days after he sent the letter, Raju was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department. The CBI subsequently took up the matter and has so far filed three charge sheets against the 10 accused.

All of them served about 18 months in prison as undertrials. Three months after Raju's letter, the Mahindra Group acquired Satyam Computer and gave it a new identity, Mahindra Satyam, which merged with Tech Mahindra on June 25 last year. The combined $2.7 billion entity is now called Tech Mahindra.