A plea by Satayam Computers founder-chairman Ramalinga Raju was dismissed by a division bench of Telangana High Court. Clearing the decks for the audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to sue B Ramalinga Raju for Rs 100 crore for the loss caused to its reputation and business.
A civil court in Hyderabad will now hear the suit filed by PwC against Raju and other perpetrators of the Satyam scam. The court will also hear a plea of Tech Mahindra – which took over the scam-hit Satyam in 2009 – seeking 223 crore damages from Raju and others accused in the crime.
Holding the view that a statutory auditor is an independent authority who can scrutinise the financial actions of the company and its management, a bench of Justice P Naveen Rao and Justice Nagesh Bhimapaka dismissed a civil revision plea filed by Raju.
The disgraced former Satyam chairman was aggrieved by the decision of the civil court, which rejected his plea to debar PwC at the threshold because it was a contractual partner and hence was barred from pursuing a suit against him.
PwC, which was the statutory auditor of Satyam Computers between 2000 and 2009, had sued Raju for the damages it suffered ever since his confession to India’s largest accounting fraud in January 2009. The audit firm claimed that owing to the fraud perpetrated by Raju and associates and their deceitful conduct, it had suffered a huge loss of clients and profits, and irreparable commercial damages.
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