Satyam’s Raju & co go back to jail as last-ditch plea fails

After a gap of nearly 11 months, disgraced founder of Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju will return to the Chanchalguda jail today. Joining him will be his brother Rama Raju and four others accused in the Rs7,000 crore financial fraud perpetrated in the erstwhile software company.

Ramalinga Raju and the other accused are expected to surrender before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate, since the Supreme Court cancelled their bail on 26 October and directed them to surrender by 10 November. Their last-minute effort to seek additional time to surrender was rejected by the court on Tuesday.

Given the court's consideration in allowing them to celebrate Diwali with their families before going back to jail, the scam accused tried to stretch their luck a bit by seeking extension of their surrender date by at least by a week on the argument that they needed to consult their counsel on the voluminous documents cited as evidence by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi's attempt to attach importance to the studying of papers by the accused with the advocates was tersely cut short by a bench comprising justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, which did not even take a minute to pronounce the decision - `dismissed' - on the plea of Raju and others.

A Supreme Court bench had earlier accepted the CBI's arguments that release of the accused, who had recruited most of the employees who were now witnesses in the case, could allow them to influence these witnesses, jeopardising a fair trial.

Further, it had asked the trial court to expedite the trial and complete it by 31 July next year, and requested the chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh high court not to transfer the trial judge, as this could delay the trial. In addition, it said if the trial was not completed by 31 July, then the accused would be free to move fresh pleas for bail.

However, it is still not confirmed whether Ramalinga Raju will be given the same cell in Chanchalguda with similar comforts as he had enjoyed during his earlier stay. Earlier, after Ramalinga Raju obtained permission from the magistrate, the prison officials gave him a separate cell furnished with a cot, mattress, a table, a chair and also a separate bathroom. But both prison officials and people close to Ramalinga Raju remained tight-lipped on the matter.

Ramalinga Raju's counsel Bharat Kumar said his client, who had been suffering from Hepatitis-C, was expected to take 12 more injections in the course of his treatment. ''From now on, it will be the responsibility of the court to take care of his treatment,'' he said.