The Supreme Court Friday granted bail to erstwhile Satyam Computers Services Ltd founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju and staffer V. Srinivas. An apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra said from the facts of the case and considering the totality of the circumstances, it was appropriate to grant them bail.
The CBI on Thursday moved an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing bail pleas of Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju, key accused in the Rs 14,000 crore Satyam scam case, and said it was certain that once out of jail they would tamper with evidence and delay trial.
Undeterred by the apex court’s October 12 order granting bail to four co-accused in the accounting fraud case, CBI laid stress on the role of the Raju brothers and their enormous influence. It detailed how the duo had prior knowledge of impending financial disaster for Satyam Computers and secured themselves from its impact while allowing it to ruin small investors as the blue chip company’s shares crashed in January 2009.
“Ramalinga Raju is highly influential and if he is released on bail, there is every possibility, almost to a point of certainty, that he would impede and interfere with the process of trial and make every effort to tamper with evidence and delay the trial,” CBI said in reply to the bail pleas.
Though four former officials of Satyam Computers have been granted bail, the case of Ramalinga Raju, who was the chief architect of the fraud, stood on a completely different footing and he could not claim parity with other accused, the agency said.
“Ramalinga Raju sold off/pledged his shares at highly inflated rates at opportune times during the fraud period leading to wrongful gain for himself and his family members, while on the other hand, retail investors, mutual fund entities and institutional investors, both Indian and foreign, have suffered wrongful losses to the tune of several thousand crores of rupees. He further acquired huge immovable assets both in his name and in the name of his family members,” CBI said.
The agency referred to the undertaking given by Raju, his brother Rama Raju and five other accused not to examine the “given up” prosecution witnesses and pointed out that similar undertaking had not been given by Talluri Srinivas and B Suryanarayan Raju. “Hence, there is every likelihood that they may cross examine the given up witnesses and delay the trial,” it said.
The Supreme Court had on October 26 last year cancelled the bail granted to Ramalinga Raju and others. However, it had given liberty to the accused to move for fresh bail after July 31 this year if the trial did not get completed. CBI said the delaying tactics by the accused and the Telangana agitation had led to the trial getting delayed beyond the July 31 deadline.
Source – Agencies
