AP govt to attach Satyam assets

Nearly three years after the Rs 7,500-crore Satyam Computer corporate scam rocked the country, the Andhra Pradesh government has finally decided to attach the properties of B Ramalinga Raju, founder of the company, and also of the promoters.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday approved the attachment of 44 properties in various districts registered in the name of the family members of promoters of Satyam Computers.

A media statement said the government approved the auctioning of the properties on the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The assets in question are located in Ranga Reddy, East and West Godavari districts and valued at Rs 2.48 crore.

The 44 properties are registered in the name of Satyam’s seven front companies.
Raju had confessed in January 2009 that he had falsified the company's accounts and cheated shareholders, bankers and analysts. The CBI subsequently arrested him and nine others for the self-confessed fraud and filed its first chargesheet in 2009 .
Earlier, the government had approved the attachment of properties worth Rs 3.87 crore belonging to Satyam promoters.

ED waiting for SC’s answer

Meanwhile, reports said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is yet to file a chargesheet. It has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking to know which court is competent to file the chargesheet.

The ED claims that it is ready with the chargesheet, but the court in Hyderabad that is currently trying Raju and his accomplices, is not a ‘competent’ court under Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.

The ED explained to the apex court that the CBI’s case is being heard by an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and it is not designated as  a special court. Though the application was filed on May 11, 2011, it has never been posted before any bench of the Supreme Court till date.