Former Satyam chief Raju gets bail (Second Lead)

HYDERABAD - Andhra Pradesh High Court Wednesday granted bail to B. Ramalinga Raju, prime accused in the multi-crore Satyam fraud case.

After spending 19 months in jail, the former chairman of Satyam Computers has finally got bail but he may still not be a free man as he may have to remain in the hospital where he is undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C for the last nine months.

The former IT czar, who fell from grace after admitting to India’s biggest ever accounting fraud, has been avoiding court since November last year, delaying the commencement of the trial.

Justice Raja Elango, who had reserved the orders Monday after hearing the arguments from Raju’s counsel and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), pronounced the same Wednesday.

Raju’s lawyer Bharat Kumar said the court had granted conditional bail, asking Raju to make himself available to CBI for any investigations.

The 56-year-old Raju has been in jail since January last year when he admitted to a Rs.7,800 crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computer Services Limited, which he had founded.

Raju has been undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C in the government-run Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here for the last nine months.

With Raju getting the bail, all 10 accused in the case are now out of jail and the bail to the prime accused has dealt a big blow to CBI at a time when it was seeking to speed up the trial in the special court through a video linkage between the court and the hospital.

The court asked Raju not to leave the country and to cooperate with the investigations and trial.

“The court has directed Mr. Raju to appear before the investigating agency after his discharge from the hospital,” Bharat Kumar told reporters.

The disgraced former chairman of Satyam has also been asked to deposit two sureties of Rs.20 lakh each.

It was immediately not clear on what grounds the court granted Raju bail but during the hearing Monday, the judge had made it clear that the accused would not get bail on health grounds.

Long period of incarceration, delay in trial and parity with other accused were the other grounds on which Raju’s lawyers had sought the bail.

Terming Raju an “economic terrorist”, the CBI had opposed the bail saying the accused might destroy evidence, especially with regard to the money he diverted to other countries.

Additional Solicitor General H.P. Rawal had blamed Raju for delaying the trial by avoiding the trial court on the pretext of his illness. He had also raised doubts about the report submitted by NIMS doctors about his health condition.

The prosecution had also told the court that the trial could be completed in six months but the judge did not agree with him.

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

While resigning as chairman of the firm, he confessed on Jan 7 that the company cooked its books resulting in an “inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances” over several years.

Two days later, he surrendered before the police and since then he has been lodged in Chanchalguda central jail here.

The CBI, however, told the court in November last year that the scam is of over Rs.14,000 crore and during the hearing in the high court Monday, the prosecution said the investors suffered a loss of Rs.24,000 crore.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court July 20 had granted bail to five accused including Raju’s brother and former managing director of Satyam, B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas.

The courts had earlier granted bail to three accused while Raju’s another brother B. Surayanarayana Raju had obtained anticipatory bail last year.

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

Son of an agriculturist and hailing from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, Raju set up Satyam Computer Services in 1987 and developed it into the country’s fourth largest software services provider.

After the scam broke out, the government took over Satyam. In April last year, Tech Mahindra acquired the firm and changed its name to Mahindra Satyam.