Police on trail of 275 firms; 40 of them have Maytas tag

Police on trail of 275 firms; 40 of them have Maytas tag

The CID officials have asked the Stamps and Registration Department to provide details of all land transactions of these companies in the State.

K.V. Kurmanath Hyderabad, Jan. 24
The Rs 7,136-crore financial fraud of Satyam Computer Services is assuming much larger proportions than initially thought, with the sleuths investigating the scam suspecting that Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, kin and friends may have floated as many as 275 companies.Of them, nearly 220 firms carry the tag Agro-Farms, Biotech and Greenlands. About 40 entities carry the Maytas tag. Transaction details The police now are trying to fathom the alleged role of the Rajus and extent of the land and financial deals.Giving a list consisting of names of these companies with their PAN numbers, the CID officials have asked the Stamps and Registration Department to provide details of all land transactions of these companies in the State.Shareholding pattern, relationship of promoters of these companies with the Rajus and financials of these companies are under investigation.Persons under scanner The officials provided a list of 30 persons, including Mr Ramalinga Raju (both in his personal capacity and part of the Hindu Undivded Family), his brother and co-accused Mr Rama Raju, wife and sons, to the Stamps and Registration, asking them to run a scan for transactions of these people.Initially, the police gave a list of just 10 persons and names of 54 companies to the Stamps and Registration Department for verification of transactions. But with the scope of the investigation widening each day, the police gave a list of 20 more names to the department.Collecting information The officials are in the process of gathering information from 1999. “Our preliminary investigations found that most of the transactions occurred in the last 2-3 years. “Most of the land dealings may have happened in Hyderabad, Medak, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, East and West Godavari districts,” an official told Business Line.Interesting names Mr Ramalinga Raju, who has a penchant for nature, particularly rivers and mountains, seems to have exhausted all the names of rivers, mountain ranges, stars and puranic names.The list comprises Brahmaputra, Chitravathi, Kanchanjunga, Vindhya, Vamsadhara, Sutlej, Punarvasu, Tungabhadra, Chandravamsa, Bhagiradhi, Mrugasira, Indravati, Jhelum, Indravati, Sahyadri and Tapti.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/25/stories/2009012550850500.htm