HC posts hearing on Raju's bail plea to Aug 5

The Andhra Pradesh High Court today posted the hearing on a bail petition moved by B Ramalinga Raju, prime accused in the multi-crore Satyam Computer accounting scam, to August 5.

The company's former chairman moved the petition exactly one week after the same court granted bail to five of his co-accused.

He requested the court to grant him bail as accused 2 and 5 had been let out on bail despite facing similar charges.

Raju informed the court that he needs to have a series of meetings with his legal advisors as several cases have been filed against him by various agencies, besides the CBI. He also said that he could not, in any way, tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses as the company had been taken over by a new management and only 180 of the 700 witnesses named by the CBI were employees.

“They (witnesses) are all highly educated and I do not have any control over the company now,” Raju told the court.

He said that though he had been in judicial custody for the past 18 months, there was no indication of the trial starting.

While the Supreme Court had rejected Raju's bail application earlier in March, the AP High Court had done the same in February.

On July 20, the AP High Court granted bail to five accused, including Raju’s bother B Rama Raju and former CFO of Satyam Computer Vadlamani Srinivas, in the multi-crore Satyam scam.

Except Ramalinga Raju, the remaining nine accused in the case received bails from various courts on different occasions.

The trial is yet to begin in lower courts as Raju had not been attending court proceedings, citing health reasons.