Raju had 50 bank accounts in '02

The Income Tax (I-T)
department has recalled a 2002 investigation report against the promoters of
Satyam that had details of a probe conducted by I-T sleuths on family members
and associates of B Ramalinga Raju in Hyderabad.



Not believing the confession of Raju that the company was left with no cash, and with
investigations pointing to forgery of books of account to show bank balances and
profits, the authorities are taking a relook at the six-year-old probe that had
unearthed more than 50 bank accounts in the name of Raju's family members and
alleged fronts.



Sources said that the authorities in the finance
ministry don't rule out the possibility that Rajus could have allegedly indulged
in insider trading in the shares of his company using these front entities and
bank accounts. In 2002, the Rajus' admissibility to the 50-odd bank accounts
having more than Rs 20 crore as deposits had yielded the department a handsome
tax bounty.



Other records available with the Tax department have also
been recalled to look into the finances of Satyam and its group companies. The
department will have a fresh look into the tax implications after the
reconstructed and authenticated accounts are made available to it by the
government-appointed auditors KPMG and Deloitte, sources said.



Tax
sleuths are also set to examine the accounts of the other group companies of
Satyam Computers, especially the real estate and infrastructure firms floated by
the Rajus. The fact that the promoters of the beleaguered IT company have
landholdings of more than 7,000 acres in and around Hyderabad raises suspicion
of a possible diversion of money.



Maytas Infrastructure, run by
Satyam founder's elder son B Teja Raju, had bagged projects worth more than Rs
30,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and some other states. The
controversial Rs 12,000 crore Hyderabad Metro project was also awarded to Maytas
amid allegations of favouritism.




Known for their proximity to many
politicians, the Raju-floated Maytas had also cornered several infrastructure
projects in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra.



On
Wednesday, the politburo of the CPM issued a statement calling for examination
of the entire business operations of Maytas Infra Ltd and Maytas Properties Ltd,
the two real estate and infrastructure development companies owned by the Satyam
promoters.



The CPM politburo pointed out how the government
overlooked a warning sounded out by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation MD E Sreedharan
in September 2008 on the "hidden agenda of the developer to grab hundreds of
acres of public land for its commercial exploitation in guise of the metro
project".