Raju walks free after 32 months

Ramalinga Raju shocked the corporate India on January 7, 2009 by admitting to fraud in the IT major. While resigning as chairman of the firm, he confessed that the company cooked its books resulting in an “inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances” over several years.

Chairman of the erstwhile Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju, brother B Rama Raju and former chief financial officer V Srinivas were released on Saturday, a day after they were granted bail by the Supreme Court in the multi-crore scam.

Dressed in grey trousers and a blue shirt, a jaded Ramalinga Raju, 56, walked out of the Chanchalguda Central Jail here at 6pm, after spending nearly 32 months in jail.

The trio did not meet mediapersons waiting outside the high-security prison and was escorted to their cars amid heavy security.

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A few of his relatives and scores of his former employees were at the jail gate to receive him, but had to leave disappointed.

Jail officials said Ramalinga Raju was in a good mood since he was granted bail on Friday. On Saturday, he was seen interacting with other prisoners.

Ramalinga Raju was driven to his posh Jubilee Hills residence in his personal Honda CRV bearing the fancy registration number, 123.

Earlier in the day, Ramalinga Raju’s counsel submitted the necessary documents to the trial court to as part of the formality. Two sureties of R2 lakh each were also submitted to the court on behalf of each of the accused.

The Supreme Court had granted conditional bail to the accused on Friday. They were asked to surrender their passports and not to tamper with the evidence.

He was arrested two days later. The HC enlarged him on bail on August 18, 2010. But his freedom was short lived as the Supreme Court set aside his bail on October 26 last year.