India / Hyd court stays release of Netflix series on Ramalinga Raju's plea

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad civil court on Tuesday restrained Netflix from releasing web series Bad Boy Billionaires: India. The court passed a restraining injunction based on a petition filed by founder of Satyam Computer Services, B Ramalinga Raju, who was convicted in the Satyam scam along with three others. The Netflix show Bad Boy Billionaires: India — a documentary based on the life of four Indian billionaires viz. Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy, Nirav Modi and Ramalinga Raju, is expected to release on the OTT platform on September 2. The documentary is expected to detail the various allegations of financial fraud against the four men.

The stay order was obtained based on a petition filed by Raju, who was released on bail in 2018. He sought orders to restrain Netflix from releasing the web series on the ground that it would invade his privacy in an unlawful manner.

Raju also claimed that the narrative contained half-truths and was palpably designed to bring down his reputation. Netflix has already released the trailer of the web series.

Meanwhile, Mehul Choksi, an Indian businessman accused of various financial frauds and on the run, had sought a preview of the documentary. He had earlier approached the Delhi High Court through his lawyer but his plea was declined by the court. A court in Bihar, however, restrained Netflix from using Subrata Roy's name in the web series. 

"What would you do to make it to the top? To build an empire? To maintain an image? Bad Boy Billionaires answers just that. Dive into the stories of India's most infamous billionaires - Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy, and Byrraju Ramalinga Raju as they plan, plot and manoeuvre through their rises and falls. Watch as insiders and experts discuss what made these men genius and, in some cases, the greatest conmen," reads the description by Netflix.

Ramalinga Raju was convicted in the Satyam scam amounting to over Rs 7,000 crore. The scam came to light on January 7, 2009, when Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's account books and profits were inflated over many years to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Police arrested him two days later on a complaint filed by some shareholders. The fraud was simple, but it turned out to be India’s biggest corporate scandal. The top management of Satyam Computer Services dressed up their accounts, balance sheets and profit margins to show a rosy picture of the company, in an effort to woo more and more investments from the public. Fixed deposit receipts of many banks were forged for the same purpose. All this they did consistently over a period of six years from 2003 to 2009. Additionally, they also prepared over 7,561 fake invoices, fake clients and fake projects. They even recruited more and more people to show that the "growing" company was in need of more staff.  

The CBI filed three chargesheets against Raju and the other accused, charging them with cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, falsification of accounts, and breach of trust. A special CBI court in April 2015 had sentenced him, his two brothers and seven others to seven years in prison in the case, which is said to be India's biggest corporate fraud.

However, a month later, the metropolitan sessions court suspended their sentence and granted them bail.

Meanwhile, Mehul Choksi, an Indian businessman accused of various financial frauds and on the run, had sought a preview of the documentary. He had earlier approached the Delhi High Court through his lawyer but his plea was declined by the court. A court in Bihar, however, restrained Netflix from using Subrata Roy's name in the web series.