Five accused in Satyam scam get bail

HYDERABAD - The Andhra Pradesh High Court Tuesday granted bail to five accused in the multi-crore rupee Satyam scam.

With this, all the accused in the case except the prime accused and disgraced former chairman of Satyam, B. Ramalinga Raju, are out on bail.

The court Tuesday granted bail to five accused including Ramalinga Raju’s brother and former managing director B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas.

The other three are also former Satyam employees - G. Ramakrishna, vice-president (finance), D. Venkatapathi Raju, senior manager (finance), and Ch. Srisailam, assistant manager.

On Monday, Justice Raja Elango heard arguments by counsel for the five accused, who contended that there was no need for them to be kept in jail as investigation had been completed and three chargesheets filed.

All the accused are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts.

Ramalinga Raju’s another brother B. Surayanarayana Raju had obtained anticipatory bail last year.

The Supreme Court in February this year granted bail to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) auditor Talluri Srinivas.

Last month, the high court granted bail to former senior partner of PwC S. Gopalakrishnan and Satyam’s former internal auditor V.S. Prabhakar Gupta on health grounds.

Now, Ramalinga Raju, currently under treatment for Hepatitis C infection in Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), is the only accused remaining in judicial custody.

A special court dealing with the case is hearing a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for examining him through video linkage between hospital and court.

Ramalinga Raju had shocked the corporate India in January last year by admitting to a Rs.7,800 crore accounting fraud in the IT major.

The CBI, however, told court in November last year that the scam is of over Rs.14,000 crore.