AN INDIAN court sentenced outsourcing giant founder Rama Raju and nine others to seven years in prison yesterday after convicting them of stealing millions of pounds in one of the largest frauds in the country’s history.

Judge BVLN Chakravarthy also convicted Mr Raju, his two brothers and seven other officials of Satyam Computer Services of cheating, using forged documents, falsifying accounts and breach of trust.

Government investigators said the fraud had cost the company’s shareholders 140 billion rupees (£1.5bn).

Mr Raju (pictured) and other suspects were arrested in 2009 but freed on bail pending trial.

Police took all 10 into custody after the verdict and sent them to a local prison.

The judge also fined Mr Raju 50 million rupees (£550,000).

The sentencing was planned for today, but Judge Chakravarthy announced it yesterday at the request of prosecutors.

Satyam, which means “truth” in Sanskrit, was once India’s fourth-largest software services company.

It counted a third of Fortune 500 companies and the US government among its clients.

Satyam plunged into turmoil after Mr Raju confessed in 2009 that he had vastly inflated the company’s assets by exaggerating cash balances, booking fake interest and mis-stating both debt and liabilities.

Tech Mahindra, a unit of the Mahindra Group, bought most of the company for £250m and changed its name to Mahindra Satyam in 2010.

by Our Foreign Desk