A city court has dismissed the petitions of former Price Waterhouse auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, both accused in the multi-crore Satyam fraud case, seeking issuance of directions to the CBI to defreeze their saving bank accounts.
Dismissing the petitions, special judge BVLN Chakravarti considered CBI?s contention that further investigations are pending in the case at this stage. He said the petitioners did not file any document in the court to disclose the source of the amount available in both the accounts to show that it is no way connected with the offence.
The court observed that at this stage of proceedings in the case, no directions could be issued to the CBI regarding defreezing of the accounts and dismissed the petitions. Earlier, the former PW auditors in separate petitions had submitted that the saving bank accounts were held under joint accounts with their wives, respectively, who were operating it to meet day-to-day expenses and other financial commitments.
During the course of investigation in the Satyam scam case, the CBI had freezed both the bank accounts and following instructions from the investigating agency, the private bank stopped the petitioners? wives from accessing to the accounts from September last year.
Referring to a petition of Mahindra Satyam, to gain access to release record rooms at Satyam Technology Centre (STC) and My Home Hub premises here, which were sealed by CBI as part of the investigations, the court posted the matter for orders to April 23. The court also extended the judicial remand of all the ten accused, including the prime accused and Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, till the same date.
Meanwhile, the judge further posted the matter for orders to April 23 on the petition of enforcement directorate that sought court?s permission to allow it to record the statements of four Satyam scam accused.