Raju: Taxing times

Hyderabad, Oct. 6: The CBI may file a fourth chargesheet against former Satyam Computer Services chairman B. Ramalinga Raju for alleged fund diversion to benami overseas accounts based on Raju’s replies and the response of the apex banks of six nations.

“I don’t remember the exact amount as it is an issue of over 10 years,” said Raju during his interrogation on Tuesday. However, on Wednesday, Raju narrated the course of events that led to alleged diversion of funds from Satyam accounts to some benami accounts overseas.

“Raju has now conceded to such diversion but does not remember the exact amount or even the number of accounts overseas,” said CBI officials. Six other accused in the scam were today questioned on this.

The CBI plans to continue its questioning of all the nine prime accused in the Satyam case for another two days. “We will have to extract some more details. This process will take at least 3-4 days,” said a source in the CBI.

The CBI is now trying to corroborate Raju’s answers with the data they had gathered from apex banks of some foreign countries.

The CBI had sent letters rogatory to six countries to establish the extent of funds parked in fake accounts. A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court in India to a foreign court for judicial assistance. While the UK, the US, Singapore and Malaysia have sent part replies, Belgium and the British Virgin Islands have not responded.