Former Satyam top officials Rama Raju, Vadlamani get bail

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday granted bail to B Rama Raju, Vadlamani Srinivas and three other accused in the multi-crore Satyam accounting scam.

Rama Raju is the brother of Satyam Computer founder B Ramalinga Raju, while Srinivas was the CFO of the company. With today's development, only the prime-accused, B Ramalinga Raju, continues to be in jail in the Rs 10,000-crore scam that broke out in 2009.

The other three who got the bail are former employees G Ramakrishna, Venkatapathi Raju and Srisailam.

Justice Raja Ilango, who heard the bail petitions, observed that there is no prospect of the trail commencing in the near future and the accused need not languish in jail until then. The high court while granting bail ordered the accused to report to the CBI investigation officer every day.

The special court set up for the case is yet to begin trial as Ramalinga Raju has been avoiding court proceedings citing health reasons.

Urging the court not to grant bail to any of the key accused in the case, solicitor general of India Gopal Subrahmaniam yesterday said they were trying hard to ensure that the trial was completed in the next six months.

The counsel for the accused N Natarajan told the court that since the Supreme Court had granted bail to an auditor, who is also an accused in this scam, on the ground that more than one year had elapsed since the accused were jailed, the same privilege should be extended to his clients.

Lakshmi Narayana, CBI DIG said that they contested the bail petition as the accused could temper with evidences if set free.

He, however, said they are yet to receive the court copy.
Last month, the AP High Court granted bail to Pricewaterhouse auditor S Gopalakrishnana, and a former internal auditor Prabhakara Gupta.
In February, the Supreme Court granted bail to Srinivas Talluri another PriceWaterhouse auditor.

A city court in March last year granted anticipatory bail to B Suryanarayana Raju.
The Rs 10,000 crore Satyam accounting scam, which came into light in early 2009, is the biggest case of corporate fraud in India.