Is Satyam's Raju fit for trial, asks the court

Not satisfied with the report submitted before it on health condition of former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju, a local court on Friday asked a city hospital to file a fresh report on whether Raju is fit for production before it under medical care or not.

The special court trying the multi-crore Satyam scam cases had last week ordered the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences director to file a detailed report on the current status of Raju's health (the prime accused in the scam), after he did not appear before it in view of his treatment for Hepatitis C at the hospital in Hyderabad.

Following the directions, the professor and head of Gastroenterology Department of NIMS Ajit Kumar today filed a report before the court saying, "The anti-viral treatment has to be continued by all possible ways and means as feasible. . . else we may lose the opportunity to treat Hepatitis C which may end up in life threatening liver failure or liver cancer in future."

In such a condition, it is advisable to manage the patient (Raju) under close supervision as in-patient as he carries very high risk for morbidity on out-patient management, the report said.

However, additional chief metropolitan magistrate and special judge B V L N Chakravarti observed that the medical report does not discuss how long Raju requires treatment as in-patient and whether he is fit for production in court under medical care.

The judge asked the NIMS hospital authorities to file a fresh report on the matter.

Earlier, the doctor in his report informed the court that Raju developed severe Neutropenia and Thrombocytopenia after receiving the fifth and sixth dose of injections as part of the treatment of hepatic failure, which may cause life threatening spontaneous bleeding and severe infection and sepsis.

"The risk is further compounded by his (Raju) background problems of heart disease and hypothyroidism," the doctor said adding, "We have already initiated steps to manage these complications and there are some visible signs of improvement too in form of 'Neutropenia', but the platelets have not yet shown any improvement."

Hence, the anti-viral treatment has to be continued with close supervision as in-patient, the doctor said.