THE TRIAL opened today of the former head of leading Indian outsourcing firm Satyam, accused of staging the nation’s biggest corporate fraud in a case dubbed “India’s Enron”.
The declaration by Satyam founder and former chairman B Ramalinga Raju in January 2009 that he had falsified profits plunged the Indian business world into turmoil.
“The court will likely issue summons to a list of witnesses to be heard,” Raju’s lawyer, Bharat Kumar, told reporters as legal proceedings got under way in Hyderabad.
Raju, who faces charges including conspiracy, cheating and forgery, declared in a letter of confession that he had overstated profits for years and inflated the company’s balance sheet by more than a billion dollars.
He later backed down from the confession, but police maintain the letter was a “voluntary disclosure of fraud”.
Raju and nine other senior executives from the company – including his brother B Rama Raju – were expected to appear in court today, his lawyer said.
Special public prosecutor K Surendra told reporters that paperwork on witnesses and documents being sought from the accused would be processed today, with the court set to re-convene on November 8.
