Satyam scam: Ramalinga Raju, 2 others granted bail

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In a relief to Satyam's disgraced founder B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother B. Rama Raju, the Supreme Court today granted them bail in the multi-crore accounting fraud involving the software firm.

Along with Raju brothers, a bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra also granted bail to Satyam's former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas on a personal bond of Rs. 2 lakh each with two sureties of same amount.

While enlarging the trio on bail, the court directed them to surrender their passports before the trial court if they had not done that so far.

There are ten accused in the case.

While five others were granted bail by the apex court on October 12, two were given bail earlier by other courts. The court also allowed CBI to approach it for modification of its bail order in case the accused were found misusing their freedom granted by it.

While passing the order, the court took into account the fact that the accused have already spent two years and eight months behind bars for their alleged offences carrying a maximum punishment of seven years.

The Satyam case revolves around one of corporate India's biggest frauds, with the accused facing charges of fudging company accounts and showing inflated profits. The surfacing of the scam and consequent collapse of the company left lakhs of shareholders and others in the lurch.

The accused have been in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda central jail since January 2009, except for a brief period when they were granted bail.