SC grants bail to Ramalinga Raju

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Satyam Computers founder B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju and ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas in the multi-crore accounting scam of Satyam Computers.

The SC bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra approved their bail application while asking them to deposit a surety of Rs 2 lakh each. Further, the apex court instructed them to extend full cooperation to the trail court.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation opposed their bail pleas stating that they Ramalinga Raju and other accused were highly influential and they could tamper with the evidence. "Ramalinga Raju is highly influential and if he is released on bail, there is every possibility, almost to a point of certainty, that he would impede and interfere with the process of trial and make every effort to tamper with evidence and delay the trial," CBI said in its reply to the bail pleas on Thursday.

The CBI also clarified that it was unable to complete the trail by July 31, the deadline set by the Supreme Court, due to the Telangana agitation and the delaying tactics adopted by the accused. However, the SC bench said that it found appropriate to grant them bail.

It may be mentioned that on October 26 last year, the Supreme Court had cancelled the bail granted to Ramalinga Raju and other accused. However, it asked the accused to seek bail afresh if the trial does not end by July 31 this year.

On October 12, the Supreme Court granted bail to former Satyam employees including former Internal Chief Auditor VS Prabhakar Gupta, G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and Ch Srisailam and former auditor of PricewaterhouseCoopers Subramani Gopalakrishnan.

Later, on October 21, the apex court admitted the bail petition of Raju brothers and Vadlamani Srinivas. However, while refusing to give them an interim relief, the apex court had posted the matter for next hearing on November 3 and issued notice to the CBI asking it file the counter-affidavit. Finally, on Friday, the trio were granted bail.