Court grants bail to Raju, 9 others in Satyam case

Raju and his brother have been asked to furnish personal bonds of Rs 1lakh each and two sureties for the same amount

A sessions court on Monday suspended the jail sentence and granted bail to former Satyam Computer chairman B Ramalinga Raju, his brother and former managing director B Rama Raju, and eight others who were convicted in the accounting fraud at the erstwhile information technology company.

Sessions judge M Laxman asked Raju and his brother for personal bonds of Rs 1 lakh each and two sureties for the same amount. The eight others were granted bail on personal bonds of Rs 50,000 each and two like sureties. This apart, the court directed all the 10 to pay a tenth of the fine levied as part of their conviction within 10 days of their release on bail and to cooperate in all pending investigations.

Last month, the trial court in this case awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment to all 10, plus a fine of Rs 5 crore each on Raju and his brother, and Rs 25 lakh each on the eight others. They were all taken to the central jail in Secunderabad.

All of them had challenged the verdict. After the session court said their petitions were not maintainable, they went to the high court. Which directed these be sent back to the sessions court, which has now granted bail.

Except B Suryanarayana Raju, a brother of Ramalinga Raju, and V S P Gupta, former internal chief auditor, the other eight were found guilty of forgery and falsification of accounts. Ramalinga Raju and Rama Raju were also found guilty of criminal breach of trust. The trial in the biggest accounting fraud discovered so far in the country had begun on November 8, 2010, and was completed on June 24, 2014.

Apart from the two brothers named earlier, the others are former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas, former employees G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and C Srisailam, former internal chief auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta, former Price Waterhouse auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, and another brother of Ramaliinga Raju, B Suryanarayana Raju.

The scam came to light on January 7, 2009, when Ramalinga Raju confessed to doctoring the company’s accounts and inflating profits over years. He was arrested two days later. The next month, the Central Bureau of Investigation took charge. It described the case as India's biggest corporate fraud, in which investors had lost Rs 14,162 crore. It said Raju and members of his family secured Rs 2,743 crore of illegal gains.