Raju is a �C� class prisoner

Hyderabad Jan. 10: Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, who authored the Rs 8,000-crore scam at Satyam Computers, and his brother Mr B. Rama Raju perhaps slept on the floor of the Chanchalguda prison on Saturday with 30 persons accused of petty crimes like theft. At the end of hours of interrogation by CID police and after being remanded to judicial custody till January 23, the Rajus slept on groundsheets and were provided with woollen blankets at the Chanchalguda jail admission barrack. �They are lodged in the admission block along with 30 other remand prisoners involved in various offences. There is no separate block for them,� said the Chanchalguda jail superintendent, Mr M. Chandrashekar. �Our doctors examined them as per the magistrate�s order,� he said. A jail official said, �We did not give them food as they came after the end of supper time.� They may have eaten before they were brought to the jail, he said. An official said, �They will be shifted out of the admission block on Sunday. We segregate them from those accused in violent offences like dacoities and robberies.�� The Rajus will be treated as �C-class� prisoners, just like other prisoners, officials said. �Those involved in dowry harassment and cheating cases are categorised soft cases and put in separate barracks,� he said. That is where the Rajus will land up if their bail applications fails. Earlier, the Rajus were produced before the sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate at his residence in West Marredpally on Saturday evening, after 18 hours of grilling by the Crime Investigation Department. The magistrate, Mr Ramakrishna, remanded the Rajus to 14 days in judicial custody. The Rajus were brought to the judges quarters from the DGP office complex, where they spent Friday night, at about 5.45 pm. A group of supporters of Mr Raju heckled the media members there. Mr A. Shivanarayana, the CID additional director-general of police, said, �We have filed a petition seeking police custody.� The police filed a 15-page remand report which included confession of both brothers. Mr Raju�s advocate, Mr S. Bharat Kumar, said, the Rajus had not filed any bail petition. �The case is posted for hearing on Monday. The police has asked the jail doctors to check the health of my clients,� he said. Mr Kumar told the magistrate that Mr Ramalinga Raju was not well. Earlier, Mr Raju had complained of chest discomfort after he was arrested by the CID on Friday. In a change of practice, police called in doctors from a corporate hospital, instead of taking them there. The doctors said the Rajus� BP and cholesterol levels were high.� The doctors said there was no need for hospitalisation.

Cops hunt for other directors

Hyderabad Jan. 10: The Crime Investigation Department police on Saturday arrested Mr Vadlamani Srinivas, who allegedly oversaw the Rs 8,000-crore Ramalinga Raju scam as chief financial officer at Satyam Computers, for his alleged role in Rs 8,000 crore fraud. The CID inspector-general, Mr Mr V.S.K. Kaumudi said, �Mr Srinivas is with us. We are questioning him.� He was earlier grilled at the Madhapur office of Satyam Computers. Mr Srinivas, who resigned as CFO last week, will be produced before a magistrate on Sunday. The CID has formed teams to arrest the other directors of Satyam Computers, and auditors of Pricewaterhouse Coopers who have been made accused in the case. Mr Kaumudi said, �We don�t the number of accused now. As the investigation progress more (names) will be added.� CID officials conducted simultaneous raids in various places including the offics of Satyam Computers and associated companies at Madhapur, Begumpet and Kompally. Meanwhile, a counsel for Sebi said that the board would file a petition to interrogate Mr Ramalinga Raju.

India will not do an Israel

New Delhi Jan. 10: India has virtually ruled out any Israel-type action against Pakistan in the wake of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai even while stating that it will keep all its options open. For now, India has said it is waiting for Pakistan to act on the dossier containing evidence about Pakistan's involvement in the Mumbai attacks. The assertion on keeping all options open came from the external affairs minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to a news channel. Asked if India would carry out an Israel-type offensive, Mr Mukherjee said: �When I say all options are open, all options are open. There is no need of picking up option A, option B, option C, option D. No need of that. I am not responding to that. What I am responding to is all options are open.� However, when asked if India would go in for the type of attack that Israel has launched on the Gaza Strip, Mr Mukherjee ruled out such a possibility. �I do not agree to that because this is totally wrong. The situation is not at all comparable,� said Mr Mukherjee. He added that India is waiting for Pakistan to act on the evidence that has been presented to it in the dossier. �If they do not act on it, then what follow-up steps we will take, and in what space of time it will take place, future course will decide (sic),� said the foreign minister. The minister of state for external affairs, Mr Anand Sharma, on Saturday said India is yet to receive a reply to the dossier it sent to the Pakistan government.

Land deals prove costly for Raju

Hyderabad Jan. 10: The controversial deputy superintendent of police, Mr Balaji Rao, is the investigating officer in the Satyam fraud case. Mr Rao had conducted the inquiry into the death of a realtor at the residence of Mr Venkat Rao, son of then AP Congress president, Mr K. Keshava Rao. The court acquitted Mr Venkat Rao and rapped Mr Balaji Rao for flaws in the investigation and prosecution. Meanwhile, sources said that Mr B. Ramalinga Raju told the CID police during his 18-hour interrogation that his dealings in land had led to huge cash problems. According to sources, Mr Ramalinga Raju said that he and his friends had invested in land during the boom period. His associates wanted to sell the land but, Mr Raju said, he paid them and kept the land. The crash in the realty market had lead to huge cash problems, he told the police. Mr Raju also reportedly confessed on major share holders, including some benami names. Police said he largely stuck to the contents of his confessional statement on Wednesday when he had revealed that he had run up a Rs 8,000-crore accounting scam at Satyam Computers. CID sources said both Mr Ramalinga Rao and his brother, Mr Rama Raju, were silent for most of the time. They were grilled by CID officials led by the inspector-general of police, Mr V.S.K. Kaumudi.

AP plans to change Maytas management

Hyderabad Jan. 10: The state government is looking at changing the management of Maytas Infra, as the Centre had done with Satyam Computers on Friday, to protect its projects including the Rs 13,000-crore Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR). The infrastructure company is involved in projects worth Rs 50,000 crore, of which a majority are joint ventures with the state government. The B. Ramalinga Raju family has a 36 per cent stake in the public limited company. The view at the highest level of government was that drastic steps like terminating contracts with Maytas Infra might affect work on the ongoing projects on which the government had spent crores of rupees.� Therefore other majority stake holders could be used to explore the possibility of replacing the existing Maytas Infra board. Sources said the government was informed about Maytas Infra pledging 40 per cent shares to Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, an equity partner in the HMR project. �The best available option is that someone like IL&FS can take control of Maytas by removing the existing board,� highly placed sources told this correspondent. Incidentally, the Chief Minister, who was keen on starting work on the HMR, made it clear that it would be impossible for Maytas Infra to achieve financial closure in March in the backdrop of the Satyam fiasco.

Centre invites truckers for talks

New Delhi/Hyderabad Jan. 10: The transport minister, Mr T.R. Baalu, on Saturday said his ministry did not want to �act tough� and asked striking transporters to come for negotiations. �We don�t want to precipitate the issue. Transporters are the stakeholders of the ministry,� the minister said when asked why he was not taking the hardline approach like the Union petroleum ministry which on Friday broke up the strike by oil PSU officers. Mr Baalu�s stand did not cool tempers at the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), which insisted that its demands be met. A representative of AIMTC said, �When our leaders are arrested, how can we go for talks with the minister?�� About 30 striking transporters had been arrested on Friday. The AIMTC is asking for lower diesel and tyre prices among a slew of demands. The minister�s statement came a day after the Centre had asked state governments to act firmly against the transporters and invoke the Essential Services Mainten-ance Act (Esma) and allow private vehicles without permits to ferry essential items.� Goods supplies remained affected and there were reports of panic buying in many parts of the country. In the state, the AP Lorry Owners Association� intensified its strike following the arrest of truckers. It said the lorry owners would not be cowed down with the threat of invoking Esma against them. Truckers blocked highways at several places, causing traffic to pile up. The association general secretary, Mr Y.V. Eswara Rao, said the truckers would not call off the strike until the government announces a Rs 10 reduction in the price of diesel. �We do not want to call of the strike based on the oral assurances of the ministers. We need a categorical and written assurance over price reduction.� he said. The state government has begun making alternative arrangements to transport essential goods. The civil supplies department said the strike had not affected the transport of essential commodities.