Satyam scam: 7-year jail term for Ramalinga Raju

Ramalinga Raju was his usual self, calm and unperturbed, even as the final verdict of seven years of rigorous imprisonment was being announced by a special court set up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his role in the multi-crore accounting fraud at the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services.

It was as if Raju, former chairman of Satyam, was aware ‘the tiger’ he had been ‘riding’ for several years was now about to throw him off its back and prey on him.

Apart from him, the court awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment to his brother and former managing director B Rama Raju and to eight others, including another brother, B Suryanarayana Raju, former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani and former Price Waterhouse auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri.

“The additional chief metropolitan magistrate, B V L N Chakravarthi, found all the 10 accused guilty. He also fined Raju and his brother Rs 5 crore each, and eight others Rs 25 lakh each,” said V Chandrasekhar, superintendent of police, CBI.