The Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate today posted orders for tomorrow on the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI)s application seeking permission to record the statements of Satyam scam accused B Ramaraju, S Gopalakrishnan and Ttalluri Srinivas (auditors). Orders on the Income Ttax (IT) department seeking permission to question B Ramalinga Raju and on the bail applications filed by Ramalinga Raju, Ramaraju and Vadlamani Srinivas would also be pronounced tomorrow.
Earlier, conceding to the SEBIs plea, the accused auditors counsel Masthan Naidu said his clients had no objections to the SEBI recording their statements.
He told the court that prior to their arrest, the auditors duo was questioned by the SEBI and they had been in touch with each other regularly. We dont know what more they want to record. All the records were seized by the investigating agencies. Iin any case, Gopalakrishnan and Tt Srinivas are ready to cooperate with the SEBI as they did for other agencies, Naidu said.
The counsel said continuing the accused in judicial remand would not serve any purpose when they were expressing their willingness to cooperate with the law and the investigating authorities. As long as they were in jail, their liberty would be curtailed, the counsel maintained. The counsel for the SEBI said under Sections 11, 11 (A), 11 (C) and 19 of the SEBI Act, the board was empowered to question the accused and record statements. Submitting a copy of the Supreme Court judgment, the SEBIi counsel said they had the right to confront the accused with the material evidence they had with them.
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