CBI arrests Satyam's internal audit head Gupta

The CBI today arrested Satyam's internal audit head VS Prabhakar Gupta for allegedly fabricating account books, just days before it is due to file a second chargesheet in the multi-crore fraud at the IT firm.

The CBI spokesman here said the agency has arrested Gupta, head of internal audit of Satyam Computer (now Mahindra Satyam), after his "role came to light now."

The spokesman said he has been arrested after being "arraigned as an additional accused (he was not named in the FIR filed in January). He has been produced before the court and has been remanded to judicial custody till November 26."

While the spokesman refused to divulge any further information about Gupta, sources in the agency claimed that the auditor had helped in falsifying accounts including inflating the overseas employees pay bill.

The arrest comes just few days ahead of the CBI preparing to file a second chargesheet, as the team probing the case returned from Mauritius with some bank details from the island nation.

The CBI team had gone to probe the alleged diversion of funds by disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju to Mauritius for re-routing it back to fictitious firms set up by the accused in India, the sources said. The CBI, which is probing the Rs10,000-crore accounting fraud - the largest in Indian corporate history, has found during its investigations that Raju had diverted large amounts to Mauritius — a tax haven — from where the money was brought to India via several European  countries, sources said.

CBI filed the first chargesheet on April 7 this year.

The CBI, after filing the second chargesheet, will later travel to the US and probe the transactions made in the Current Accounts maintained in Bank of Baroda's New York branch, and a non-existent balance of Rs1,733 crore has been found till date.

The CBI, which set up a multi-disciplinary investigation team, including officials from the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and RBI, has claimed the money involved in the scam is nearly Rs 10,000 crore, more than what was stated by Raju in his confessional note in January this year.