The CID has started the pain-staking process of scrutinizing electronic data that runs into terabytes that has been recovered from personal laptops of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju his brother Rama Raju and former chief financial officer V Srinivas,and several computers of Satyam Computer Services. "The electronic data itself is in terabytes which will take at least two months for our cyber experts to study. We have got all the land purchase and transactions records intact. We also have original bank statements which prove Raju's lies about fixed deposits," additional director general of police (ADGP) CID A Siva Narayana said. The CID's core investigation team has now been joined by experts from cyber crime cell and AP State Forensic Laboratory. An official from Stamps and Registration office is helping the team in scrutinizing the land records of the Raju family. A member of the CID investigation team says that within 10 hours of his arrest on January 9,Raju had revealed everything about the Satyam fraud: how he fudged the accounts from 2002 by inflating profits that started with Rs 459 crore and reached Rs 5000 crores by 2007 when the equity remained at a constant of between 6 per cent to 6.2 per cent starting 2002,forgery of bank certificates substantiating non-existent crore worth of fixed deposits in at least six banks. In his confessions spread over five days,Raju likened his professional and personal life to two ice cream cones. One cone was Satyam Computer Services Limited which he nurtured since 1982 and wanted his company to be reckoned as one of the five top five IT majors in India. He told the CID investigation team that his professional cone reached its zenith when he started being seen with Chief Ministers of various states,Central Ministers and finally,with former US President Bill Clinton. His real rise in business started with Clinton's visit. His ambitions changed drastically after Clinton's visit,the CID notes in its report that will be the basis of over 1,000 page chargesheet. Neither the Raju family's land dealings was questioned by the office of Commissioner of Stamps and Registration,nor the familiar names in over 300 newly-opened companies that had Hyderabad-based addresses were questioned by the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Based on Raju's revelations,the CID had raided 36 places - residences,flats,offices,farmhouses and safehouses of the Rajus - within ten hours. "The other cone,the personal one,was a parallel cobweb of 330 companies which were created by his second brother B Suryanaryana Raju who was director of SRSR Holdings Ltd and SRSR Advisory Services Limited. This cone was originally set up to take care of the Raju family stake in Satyam Computer Services Limited. But,these companies and B Ramalinga Raju were enticed by the lure of insider trading that helped the family reap hundreds of crores. The companies floated by B Suryanaryana Raju traded only in Satyam shares,selling lakhs of company shares when the share prices went up and then buying them back when the prices fell. They utilized the money to buy acres and acres of land. However,it must also be appreciated that when Satyam faced a financial crunch when ever between 2002 and 2008,Ramalinga Raju also used money of his private firms to keep Satyam Computer Services Limited afloat," a top investigator preparing the charge-sheet said. The money that was gained from insider trading was used to buy the thousands of acres of land by the Raju family,he said. "But when the recession started in the US and West and Satyam's revenues started going down,Raju found that real estate took a major hit and prices came down to half. When Satyam Computer Services Ltd started facing real cash crunch,Raju found that he couldn't encash on the real estate investments. He finally had to confess to fudging Satyam's accounts," the officer said. Raju knew very well that his 'personal cone' would not be affected by his confessions. He stood the risk of losing Satyam and the Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties which he already knew were not his anyway. He had already pledged his family's entire stake in Satyam and a significant share in the Maytas firms to take loans. His lawyers have sent a notice to the new Satyam management that since Ramalinga Raju pledged his shares to raise about Rs 1,200 crore as loan to keep Satyam going for a couple of months towards the end of 2008,Satyam should return the money to him," a member of the investigation said. The CID says that more than Ramalinga Raju,they are interested in interrogating his second brother B Suryanarayana Raju who they confirm is responsible in helping Ramalinga set up the parallel network or the second cone. Suryanarayana Raju is at present absconding.
