On a day of high drama, the fallen Indian IT leader, Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, found himself drawn away from the comfort of 5-star luxury and high echelons of power to the claustrophobic confines of the Chanchalguda jail.
The Founder-Chairman of Satyam Computer Services, who admitted that the company was in a Rs 7,136-crore financial mess, was on Saturday remanded to judicial custody till January 23 by Mr D. Ramakrishna, the sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
The court has also directed the jail officials to monitor the health condition of Mr Raju as he was suffering from blood pressure fluctuations and high cholesterol and hepatitis C infection.
At the jail, Mr Raju would not get any preferential treatment. He would have access to one newspaper and there would be no TV in the barracks. His diet would consist of a total of 650 gms of rice (lunch and dinner), tea twice a day etc.
The two Rajus (Mr Ramalinga Raju and his brother Mr Rama Raju, former MD and CEO) were among the 27 persons remanded to judicial custody to the Chanchalguda jail.
Meanwhile, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Satyam, Mr Vadlamani Srinivas, whose whereabouts were not known till yesterday, has also been arrested by the police. Interestingly, Mr Srinivas, was the most significant name not exonerated by Mr Raju in his statement of facts.
Hectic activity
The action began late last night, when Mr Raju along with his brother drove to the Director General of Police (DGP) office, and was closeted with CID officials till the wee hours, culminating in their arrest.
Throughout today, police, opposition parties, media and investigating teams probing the Satyam affairs were busy, to ferret out important threads of the unfolding events, even as Mr Raju remained elusive.
Expectations of his appearing before the Magistrate which were doing the rounds from early in the morning, turned real only around 5 p.m. when Mr Raju and his brother, were brought under heavy security by the police to the residence of Mr Ramakrishna in Marredpally, as the courts are on vacation.
Mr S. Bharat Kumar, legal counsel for Mr Raju, has said that he would move the court for bail on Monday.
CM talks to PM
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has spoken to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and detailed him about the happenings related to Satyam Computer.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had discussed the case with Mr S S P Yadav, DGP, Mr K. Aravinda Rao, Additional DG (Intelligence), and the CID officials probing the case, at his Camp Office today.
