NEW DELHI, Jan 24: Indian police have arrested two senior officials of global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers over fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, reports said on Saturday.

The Press Trust of India and other Indian media said the two officials were taken into custody in connection with the billion-dollar fraud at India’s fourth-largest outsourcing firm based in the southern city of Hyderabad.

The arrests came after B. Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam, was arrested earlier this month, days after owning up to the scandal that has shaken corporate India.

Pricewaterhouse audited Satyam’s finances and is now being probed by India’s accounting board for its failure to detect the fraud.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) and other media identified the two arrested Pricewaterhouse officials as the company’s Chief Relationship Partner in India, S. Gopalakrishnan, and Engagement Leader Srinivas Taluri.

A Pricewaterhouse spokesman called the arrests “unfortunate” and said it had not seen “any evidence of any wrongdoing” by the men, according to PTI.

“The firm and its related team have fully cooperated with the investigating agencies to provide all the documents called for. Under the circumstances, detention is unfortunate,” the spokesman added.—AFP