HYDERABAD - The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has been permitted by a court here to interrogate Satyam Computer's disgraced founder B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju and the company's former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas Saturday.

The criminal investigation department of the Andhra Pradesh police and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had interrogated them earlier.

The SFIO can question the two former auditors of Pricewaterhouse the next day.

All the five are now lodged in the Chanchalaguda jail here.

The interrogation will take place in the jail in the presence of lawyers of the accused between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., sixth additional chief metropolitan magistrate D. Ramakrishna ruled Friday.

The SFIO, a multidisciplinary organisation that investigates serious financial frauds, had sought permission to quiz the five accused for two days each.

The organisation was set up in 2003 and has experts drawn from the financial sector, capital market, accountancy, forensic audit, taxation, information technology and investigation.

It was established following stock market scams, failure of several non-financial banking companies and phenomenon of companies vanishing after collecting huge deposits from the public.

Friday's order comes close on the heels of SEBI questioning the Raju brothers Feb 4-6 following an interim order from the Supreme Court.

The magistrate had Jan 23 refused to admit SFIO's earlier petition on a technical ground.