I-T dept wants to quiz Raju, approaches court

The Income-Tax department on Friday wanted to question B Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computer Services, who has confessed to manipulating his company's accounts to the tune of Rs 7,800 crore (Rs 78 billion).

In a petition filed in the court of 6th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, the I-T department sought three days time to examine and record the statement of Raju.

The court which heard I-T counsel Ramakrishna Reddy posted the matter to Monday as defence lawyer sought time to file a reply. Reddy said the assessment of Satyam Computers for 2007-8 was pending before the deputy commissioner of I-T for finalisation of assessment.

Before the department could assess the income of the firm, Raju himself publicly admitted that he had inflated the company's accounts.

"We have filed the petition under section 131 of Income Tax Act, which authorises the Deputy Commissioner to record the statement of Raju on the oath," Reddy said.

The judge also posted a petition by market regulator Sebi for February 16.

"Securities and Exchange Board of India has sought permission to quiz Satyam's former CFO Srinivas and PricewaterhouseCooper's sacked executives S Gopalakrishnan and T Srinivas who are accused in the case.

Earlier, the Sebi had interrogated and recorded the statement of Raju and his brother and Rama Raju for three days from February 4 in Chanchalguda Jail.