Ramalinga Raju's game plan

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: It was a smart move to dodge the long arm of the law on part of the disgraced Satyam Computers' ex-chief B Ramalinga Raju to "submit himself" before the Crime Investigation Department officials here. In the process, however, he committed yet another grave offence by evading the SEBI authorities, legal experts point out. The SEBI summoned Ramalinga Raju to appear in person before its investigating officials and present the records related to the Satyam scandal. By sending his lawyer on behalf to the SEBI investigating team, Ramalinga Raju violated provisions of the SEBI Act, 1992, by which he has now become liable for a one-year jail term and a fine of Rs one crore, legal sources said. "His lawyer can appear only before the Appellate Tribunal and not the investigating authorities," they added. Had he appeared before the SEBI investigating team, Raju would have escaped arrest as the SEBI Act has no provision for arrest of a person. But, Raju chose to get "arrested" by the police and get charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code in what is being described by legal luminaries as a "legal match-fixing." "Now that he has been arrested and charged under the Indian Penal Code, Raju has secured immunity for himself from possible extradition to the United States where too he is facing criminal charges. Similarly, under what is known as 'double jeopardy' he can escape prosecution by any other agency as law bars prosecution of an accused twice for a same crime," leading lawyer Bhuvanagiri Chandrasekhar pointed out. "By surrendering before the police, Ramalinga Raju has purchased the liberty from facing billion dollar questions, that were to be answered, from various other quarters. In a way the government has saved him from the SEBI and also from extradition to the US," Chandrasekhar added. However, Ramalinga Raju could be convicted and awarded a life-term in jail under Section 409 of IPC. This could be a distant possibility as charges under the Section are tried by a magistrate who can award a jail term of only three years. "As per Section 409 of Criminal Procedure Code, a sessions court may suo moto withdraw the case from a magistrate court and try and punish an accused under 409 IPC and award a life-term. But such things have seldom happened so far," Chandrasekhar noted.