‘Raju a conman? It can’t be true’

Bhimavaram: So what if everybody else thinks he is a fraud? The populace of Bhimavaram town have a different take on Raju: they still have unflinching faith in their ‘muddu bidda.’ A case in point: before and after Raju’s resignation on Wednesday, nearly Rs 50 lakh to Rs 80 lakh worth shares were bought by the locals.

It is learnt a shrimp trader bought nearly Rs 8 lakh worth shares on Wednesday. Sources say Bhimavaram alone has around 12,000 shareholders of Satyam — some reside in Hyderabad — who own worth Rs 120 crore stock. Most of them are jewellers, aqua farmers and Kshatriyas. On Wednesday before Ramalinga resigned, they bought shares at Rs 170. When the news of his resignation broke out and the scrip crashed to below Rs 40, they still purchased the shares. “We have full confidence in the company,” a landlord K S R Jogiraju said. “Here are the investors of Bhimavaram, the native place of Ramalinga Raju, who have reposed their faith in Satyam despite the massive scam,” a broker said.

For all the goodwill Raju has in his native Garagaparru village and Bhimavaram, there are still some investors livid with him. “We don’t know what would happen to our hardearned money. If a top IT firm like Satyam could deceive investors, imagine the fate of small traders,” one Bonda Srinivas bemoaned.