Inflated accounts but did not embezzle money: Raju

New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju
on Wednesday said he never admitted to fraudulently
appropriating money from the IT company.
Defending bail granted to him in the Supreme Court of
India, Raju, interestingly, thanked the government for its
efforts of putting the scam-hit firm back on the track.
During the proceedings, Raju's counsel former attorney
general and senior advocate Ashok V Desai submitted that the
confessional statement of January 7, 2009, of inflating the
account books of Satyam Computers (now Mahindra Satyam) has no
linkage with siphoning off money.
"There is no admission of any shiphoning off money, there
is no admission of any guilt, but only of inflating the charts
and accounts of the company," he submitted.
Opposing the plea of investigative agency Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) to cancel the bail granted to Raju,
Desai contended that any court would take three to five years
to complete the trial considering the large volumes and over
450 witness produced by the agency. Till such a long time Raju
cannot be put behind the bars, he added.
"Still we are at stage of pre-charging. Only chargesheet
has been filed and charges are not even framed. Even after one
year and nine months, nothing has started and he has already
spend more than 19 months in prison," said Desai.
He further said, "Trial would take if not five years then
three years, with so many documents and evidences. I do not
know why in such condition CBI wants to send him again back
to him in jail ... CBI's contention of tampering evidences by
him after getting bail does sound well".
Commending the government's role in reviving the company,
he said, "Thanks to the reconstructive approach of the
government including Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Corporate and CLB, several eminent people were put on
company's board. Company survived thanks to the whole
approach."

"We have to balance between right of getting bail and
custody. If the trial goes up to 10 years, then can we put him
(Raju) behind bars for those 10 years," the bench said, adding
that it was against the fundamental principles of
jurisprudence.
The apex court was hearing CBI's appeal against order
of the High Court granting bail to Raju and his brother Rama
Raju, and employees of the IT firm Srinivas, Ramakrishna,
Venkatapathi and Srisailam in connection with the fraud.
The court has posted the matter on Tuesday for next
hearing.