Raju a conman as early as 1983?

HYDERABAD: More skeletons are tumbling out of B Ramalinga Raju’s cupboard. While reviewing the dealings of the various companies floated by Raju with the state government, officials stumbled on to the fact that Satyam Computers is not the first company that he defrauded . Over 25 years ago, Raju had gypped the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation (APIDC) of Rs 52 lakh, which in those days used to be a more substantial amount.

Ramalinga Raju had set up the Sri Satyam Spinning Mills in 1983. Located in Shabashpalli village of Donthi mandal, Narsapur taluk in Medak district , the mill was a Rs 9 crore project to which the APIDC had contributed Rs 52 lakh in 1982 as loan.

A few years later, the company manufacturing synthetic yarn suffered losses and was reported sick and subsequently remained closed for sometime. Not surprisingly, the company’s management did not either pay interest or repay the prinicipal. In 1997, under the name Samrat Spinners, the company went public by floating 80 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each aggregating Rs 8 crore.

In 1999, Raju sold off the company and its assets to T Devender Reddy of Gayatri Industrial Products. Devender acquired the manufacturing unit by buying 22.72 lakh equity shares of Samrat and stayed on as MD until May 2001. Since then, the APIDC has been running from pillar to post to recover the loaned amount. ‘‘ The corporation is unable to claim the money from Raju since he has sold off the company and neither can we recover it from the new owners of the company . In effect, Rs 52 lakh has to be written off as bad debts,’’ one official told TOI. According to sources, the corporation has been writing to Ramalinga Raju and Devender on the issue of recovery of the dues. ‘‘ Several letters were written to the different managements. As late as last year, the corporation’s MD had spoken to Raju but the latter’s reply was that he was no longer associated with Samrat Spinners and, therefore, was not answerable to APIDC about the dues,’’ an official said.

However, corporation sources said the state is virtually helpless when the borrowers do not repay the dues. ‘‘ So far, we haven’t been able to do anything except issue notices. One has to see whether the various agencies probing the affairs of the software company can do anything better,’’ another source said.