Raju says I was alone, govt thinks otherwise

Secretaries of very key ministries attended the high powered meeting of the government day before later.

 

In this meeting one of the points that was discussed was the fact that this scale of fraud which has happened could not have been done without very key people of the organisation not knowing about it. But the government does not believe Satyam 's Former Chairman Ramalinga Raju's confessional statement which says that no one else knew about it.

 

The meeting wasa attended by he Finance Ministry, the Economic Affairs Secretary himself was there. The meeting also had the Secretary of the Law Ministry. It had representatives of Sebi, the Corporate Affairs Ministry, the IT Secretary.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Vivek Law's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

 

There was a very high powered meeting of the government day before later in the afternoon which was attended by secretaries of very key ministries - the Finance Ministry, the Economic Affairs Secretary himself was there. The meeting also had the Secretary of the Law Ministry. It had representatives of Sebi, the Corporate Affairs Ministry, the IT Secretary was also there and in this meeting one of the points that was discussed was the fact that this scale of fraud which has happened could not have been done without very key people of the organisation not knowing about it. Now this was the line which the government has adopting. It does not believe Raju's confessional statement which says that no one else knew about it.

Let me give you the sequence of events after that. As we know already, even prior to January 8th there was the RoC team which was going through papers. By the January 8th morning the Sebi team was already at the Satyam office going through office. Yesterday as we reported first, at 4:15 pm is when the CB-CID team of the Andhra Pradesh police for the first time visited the Satyam office. They were there for two-hours talking to the Sebi officials.

A very quick cursory glance at this particular confessional letter which Raju had written throws up the reason why his brother as well as the CFO now faces arrest. The brother has been arrested yesterday and now the CFO faces arrest. He keeps mentioning in the letter at every point of time that neither me nor the managing directors, spouses didn't know - he is always talking in those lines, which pretty much makes it clear the managing director knew which is the reason why he has been arrested and he says none of the board members past or present had any knowledge of the situation and he named some key business leaders - now he does not name the CFO interestingly and which is one of the reasons why the CFO is also expected to be arrested very soon.

However, it is not just the managing director and the CFO, investigators have told us that they are looking at the role of several other people because they believe and they are working on this line of investigation that this is not something that could have escape the eye of so many people or only two-three people knew about this. So that is where the situation stands as of now.

 

The other important point is that there is a lot of buzz here that whether or not Sebi or the SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) which has already come here yesterday will get access to Ramalinga Raju or his brother for interrogation.

 

Let put this into perspective when Sebi issued its summons yesterday at 2-2:30 there was not even a CB-CID probe on. The time given was yesterday 4:30 when the lawyer came at that point of time the CB-CID officials were present there with the Sebi team. Subsequent to that a time of 4 pm today was given in the meantime he has been arrested. So as far as I understand from various Sebi sources this is not something that is perturbing the regulator too much at this point of time. Think about it - the fact of the matter that the CB-CID team was present when the lawyer of Ramalinga Raju even came to make a presentation to Sebi. The fact is another piece of information that we do know is that at the Central Government level this issue is at the highest level and the Secretary of the Department of Corporate Affairs, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs did after the January 8th meeting brief the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary as well.

 

So I think a theory to say that the Andhra Pradesh Police is going to thwart attempt by other investigators to question Raju doesn't seem to hold much ground simply because this has now become a coordinated effort and to that effect my sense is that over the next few days a lot more names could come up. The investigations have already gained lot of ground; we are already hearing that even while he is in custody officials of the Sebi team of the SFIO team are already speaking to at the Director General Police's office and this clearly means that very shortly a lot more of what went wrong in the Satyam Scandal.

 

I would like to reiterate biggest issue at this point of time is that was this money a non-existent amount which was just created or was it money that existed and has been siphoned off. That is the main issue and that is where the effort of the investigators is to find out that whether money was siphoned off.

 

The preliminary charges under which he is been booked seems to stem from his confessional letter what he is admitted to already but the scope of it could be extremely wider to cover several other sections and several offences as the investigation proceeds.