Bail pleas of PwC executives dismissed

A local court in Hyderabad dismissed the bail petitions of S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, former partners of auditing firm Price Waterhouse, who are in judicial remand in the Rs 7,800-crore (Rs 78 billion) Satyam fraud case.

The Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate dismissed the bail pleas on the ground that the investigation is in progress.

Meanwhile, the judge reserved his orders on a petition filed by Income Tax (I-T) department seeking three days time to examine and record the statement of Satyam former chairman B Ramalinga Raju.

The counsel of I-T department Ramakrishna Reddy informed the court that as Raju himself confessed having manipulated his company's accounts, the department wanted to examine him to arrive at a correct figure of the tax for 2007-8.

Opposing the plea, the defence lawyer of Raju contended that his client was grilled and interrogated by SEBI, SFIO and CID besides entire documents pertaining to accounts of the firm were seized. However, he said that let the I-T department strict to one day instead of three days.

"My client does not want to give an impression that he is opposing the probe or not cooperating with investigating agencies," he said.