Satyam salary fraud: A challenge for investigators

Hyderabad: Ramalinga Raju said he inflated profits. The CID's public prosecutor said in court on Thursday that he inflated the number of his employees. That Satyam has no more than 40,000 employees. And that the salaries of 13000 so-called employees or one in four employees was probably being diverted elsewhere. Raju's lawyer Bharat Kumar says that is a lie.

",It is nothing but imagination. There is no ground for such accusation.",

NDTV has learnt that there are about 32000 salary accounts of Satyam in ICICI Bank that handles more than 90 per cent of Satyam's salary payments in India. HDFC has another 2000 salary accounts. Add to this, an estimated 15000 salary accounts overseas.

So, should the banks come under scrutiny for facilitating payment of salaries to non-existent people? What about RBI norms on knowing your customer? ICICI sources say it is not possible that a non-existent person would hold an account. Because there is personal verification, photograph and a distinctive signature. They are, however, cooperating with investigating agencies to check authenticity of salary accounts.

Satyam showed over 5200 crore rupees as its salary bill in 2007-2008. How much of that went into Raju's own pocket and how, is the new challenge for the investigators.