JOIN USA bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said bail could not be granted as he “is the main accused and likely to influence the witnesses.’’When Raju’s advocate T S Andhyarjuna insisted for issuance of a notice for seeking reply form the CBI and Andhra Pradesh government, the bench said: “No notice for the time being.”
Andhyarjuna said Raju had been behind bars in judicial custody since January 10, 2009, and that a chargesheet and two additional chargesheets had been filed in the case. The trial would take a long time as the chargesheets contained 1,60,000 pages and 671 witnesses were to be examined by the court.
Andhyarjuna, former solicitor general of India, defended Raju saying that the IT company had been taken over by Mahindras and he had no control over the employees — some of them are witnesses in the case.
When the advocate insisted for bail on health grounds, the bench said he had received proper medical treatment in judicial custody. On the insistence of Andyarjuna, the bench allowed Raju to withdraw the petition with liberty to file at an appropriate stage.
Raju, in the application, had claimed that he was suffering from serious cardiac and other health problems and was willing to abide by any conditions imposed by the apex court for his release. In the appeal filed against the Andhra Pradesh High Court order, which had rejected his bail application, Raju said the chargesheet contains voluminous documents and that he was unable to go through it and meet his counsel to prepare for his defence due to his ill-health.