There are your normal hum-drum business meetings held via Web conference, where the sales team in Pittsburgh assembles to run through the numbers with the head office in Milwaukee… nodded perfunctory greetings, disembodied heads floating on the screen… Starbucks cups raised here and there…
Then there are more lively uses for video conferencing: India's The Central Bureau of Investigation is seeking permission from the special court trying Satyam Computers' former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju in a billion-dollar scam to examine him through video-conferencing.
"Raju is not able to appear before the court as he is hospitalized. Based on NIMS health report, we will decide on filing a petition requesting the court to examine him through video conferencing or any other means,' CBI's deputy legal advisor B Ravindranath told PTI.
Raju is not in good enough health to attend a deposition, evidently: "The 55-year-old founder of Satyam is suffering from hepatitis-C and is undergoing treatment at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences here."
Raju has confessed to inflating company profits, and is in judicial custody, according to the wonderfully-named Indian industry journal Daily Latest News.
"The CBI had contended in the past that Raju was trying to buy time on health grounds to delay the trial in the case," wrote New Kerala, adding that "the main accused had frequent meetings with friends and relatives on a regular basis while being in the hospital."
Industry journal DNA reported that additional chief metropolitan magistrate and special judge trying the Satyam scam cases, BVLN Chakravarti, on April 12 had asked the NIMS to furnish details of Raju's health condition on a daily basis with copies of daily case sheets and medical examinations conducted on him since March 31 for verification:
"However, no report was filed by the NIMS before the court after which the judge issued reminder to NIMS director to submit a report forthwith by April 23 without fail."
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Alice Straight