Rajus get 1week to give staff names

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad,June 15: Justice Ravishankar of the AP High Court on Wednesday directed the disgraced chairman of Satyam Computers, B. Ramalinga Raju, and his brother B. Rama Raju to provide within a week the names of the Satyam employees for cross-examination.

The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Raju brothers challenging the orders of the trial court which rejected their plea to direct the CBI to furnish certain documents pertaining to the Satyam scam. The CBI has been opposing the plea saying that the documents were irrelevant. Mr T. Niranjan Reddy, counsel for the CBI, said Ramalinga Raju and his brother are seeking the service details of 52,000 employees, furnishing of which was not an easy task.

Mr Nalin Kumar, counsel for Ramalinga Raju, told the court that certain employees deposed against his clients in the trial court charging the Rajus with allotting shares of the company in an unlawful form to certain individuals. He said that they want to cross examine them and for that they need certain documents The judge after hearing both the parties directed the Rajus to tell the court within a week as to who were the employees they wish to cross examine and also the details of the documents they were seeking. The Supreme Court earlier fixed July 31 as deadline for the trial court to complete the trial in the Satyam case. The trial court is moving ahead with the trial at a brisk pace. The CBI too has reduced its list of witnesses and completed the job of producing their versions before the trial court.