HYDERABAD - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the Rs.78 billion (Rs.7,800 crore) fraud in Satyam Computer Services, Tuesday sought custody of disgraced chairman of the IT major B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas for two more days.

CBI moved the petition for their custody before fourteenth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S. Samuel Victor Emmanuel when the Raju brothers, Vadlamani and sacked Price Waterhouse partners S. Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas were brought to the court at the end of their seven-day custody.

The magistrate adjourned the hearing to Wednesday. All the accused were later sent back to Chanchalguda central jail. Their judicial custody ends March 20.

While seeking custody of the three key accused for two more days, the prosecution told the court that it wanted to interrogate them further to dig out the truth.

The court March 9 sent all the accused to CBI custody for seven days. The CBI's multi-disciplinary investigation team (MDIT) headed by the agency's DIG V.V. Lakshmi Narayana questioned them at state-owned Dilkusha Guest House, which is serving as the camp office of MDIT.

This was the first time that CBI interrogated the accused after taking up the probe into the massive fraud from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Andhra Pradesh police last month.

Ramalinga Raju had Jan 7 confessed that he had cooked the company's account books and inflated profits over the past several years.

The company founder and his brother and former managing director Rama Raju were arrested by CID Jan 9. Vadlamani Srinivas was picked up the next day. The two former auditors were arrested later.