Raju appears in court

HYDERABAD: B Ramalinga Raju, the founder of Satyam computers and main accused in the Satyam scam, on Tuesday surprised everyone by suddenly appearing in the court that is hearing the case at Nampally in Hyderabad. He was accompanied by a doctor when he appeared in the court.Following a request from Raju's counselthat he be permitted to return to Nims, magistrate B V L N Chakravarthy accordedhim the permission after which Raju left the court. The disgraced chairman ofSatyam has not appeared in this trial court ever since he was admitted in NimsHospital in September last year for getting treatment for his Hepatitis Cailment.The CBI, which developed certain doubts about the actualstate of his health, had even filed a petition urging the court to direct thejail authorities to produce him in the court. Saying that this petition hasbecome infructitious because Raju had appeared in the court now, the magistrateclosed it. However, CBI counsel K Surendra urged the court not to close theirother petition that wanted the court to examine Raju via video conferencing."This is because of the uncertain ways of Raju," Surendra said. The court hasdecided to keep this petition pending.Raju's appearance, legalcircles say, must be due to the conditions laid down by the A P High Court whilesetting Raju free on bail last week. Though he was granted exemption fromappearing before the CBI officials daily till his discharge from the hospital,no such exemption was given for his attending the hearings of the trial court.It was because of this reason he made an appearance on the first hearing of thecourt after his bail, the legal circles said.Later, senior counselUmamaheswara Rao argued the case on behalf of Raju and told the court that thereis no clarity in CBI's chargesheets in the case. "The agency charged Raju undervarious sections and none of the chargesheets and their contents carry anyingredients in them to satisfy slapping of such charges," the counsel said."There are no audited accounts in the Satyam company and the accounts are notyet restated and yet the CBI charges us with both accounting, auditing andcompany law violations," the counsel said. "I have clinching evidence todemolish the theories of CBI," he added.The magistrate posted thematter to August 26 for further hearing.