Satyam Ramalinga Raju jailed for 6 months

A Hyderabad court of Monday sentenced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju to six months in jail, and slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on each of them, in connection with the software firm's financial fraud.

Touted as the country's biggest accounting fraud, the scam came to light on January 7, 2009, after Mr Raju confessed to manipulating his company's account books and inflating profits over many years to the tune of several crores.

Mr Raju was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police two days later along with his brother Rama Raju and others.

The former Satyam chairman and others were charged with offences like cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and breach of trust under relevant sections of IPC (Indian Penal Code) for inflating invoices and incomes, account falsification, faking fixed deposits, besides allegedly falsifying returns through violation of various income tax laws.

Another case regarding the CBI or Central Bureau of Investigation probe in Satyam scam is pending for judgement on December 23.