Satyam's Raju finally gets bail

Fortune finally smiled on Friday on B Ramalinga Raju, founder of what was earlier known as Satyam Computer Services, with the Supreme Court granting him bail. The lawyers of Raju, who has been in jail for over three years for a massive accounting fraud at the software company, are now busy preparing the personal bonds required to be furnished in the court to secure his release.

The apex court also granted bail to Raju’s brother, B Rama Raju, and the company’s former chief financial officer, Srinivas Vadlamani, on the condition that they should furnish a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh each, with two sureties of same amount. The lawyers of the trio here are trying to furnish the bonds before 5 pm tomorrow in the trial court.

With on Friday’s bail orders, all the 10 charged in what is considered the biggest corporate fraud case in the country till date would be out of jail. While five were granted bail by the apex court on October 12, two others were given bail by different courts earlier.

The charges are under sections 120 (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery), 471 (forgery for cheating), 471A (falsification of records) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ramalinga Raju and his brother were arrested on January 9, 2009. and Vadlamani the following day. Auditing agency Price Waterhouse’s S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri were arrested on January 24, 2009. All of them were in the Chanchalguda Central Prison here.

Since his arrest 34 months earlier, Raju has been in jail, except for two months. He was being treated in hospital for a month and was out on bail for another month. His bail plea had been rejected by various courts before the Andhra Pradesh high court granted him bail in September last year. However, the Supreme Court cancelled the bail, following a petition filed by the Central Bureau Investigation, which is probing the fraud case.

On January 7, 2009, Raju resigned from the Satyam board after saying he had been falsifying the earnings and assets of Satyam for years. Two days after shocking confession, Raju and his brother and managing director, Rama Raju, were arrested as part of a crackdown by state authorities and the central government, which disbanded the tainted IT firm's board.