SC rejects CBI appeal, gives bail to Satyam Raju

After spending almost three years in jail, B Ramalinga Raju, disgraced founder of Satyam Computers and prime accused in the company’s Rs 14,000-crore financial fraud case, was finally granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday. HT reports.

After spending almost three years in jail, B Ramalinga Raju, disgraced founder of Satyam Computers and prime accused in the company’s Rs 14,000-crore financial fraud case, was finally granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday.

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Along with Raju, his brother B Rama Raju, four employees of the IT firm and Satyam’s former CFO Vadlamani Srinavas, were also given bail on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh each.

Rejecting the CBI’s contention that Raju was the prime accused and could influence the trial, a bench, headed by justice Dalveer Bhandari, noted the accused had already spent two years and eight months behind bars, while the maximum punishment for the alleged offences committed was seven years.

Ramalinga Raju, 56, had shocked corporate India in 2009 when he confessed to fudging his company’s books to show inflated cash and bank balances.

He has been in Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda jail since then, except for a brief period when he was granted bail by the Andhra Pradesh high court.