SC cancels bail of Satyam’s Raju brothers, 4 others

The Supreme Court today cancelled the bail of Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju and four others, granted by the Andhra Pradesh high court in August in the Satyam accounting fraud.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the Satyam scam, had asked for Raju's bail to be cancelled. Hearing the CBI plea, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma cancelled the bails and asked all six persons to surrender by 8 November.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued notice to Ramalinga Raju asking why his bail should not be cancelled. The CBI opposed Raju's bail on the ground that Raju may try to tamper with evidence against him and influence witnesses, most of whom were his former employees.

Observing that the case involved the biggest scam in the history of India, which had affected a large number of shareholders, banks and financial institutions, the bench said that the high court order of grating bail cannot be sustained.

The Supreme Court also directed the special court in Hyderabad, which is conducting the trial in the Satyam case, to conclude its proceedings by July 2011.

In its petition for cancellation of the bail granted to Raju, the CBI had said that Satyam's founder and former chief "misused" the bail by meeting one of the witnesses in the case and trying to "influence" him.