Satyam Ramalinga Raju released on bail

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After spending nearly 32 months in jail, erstwhile Satyam Computers Services Ltd founder chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer V. Srinivas were on Saturday released, a day after they were granted bail by the Supreme Court in the multi-crore accounting fraud.

The trio came out of Chanchalguda Central Jail on Saturday evening. Their family members and close relatives received them outside the jail.

Earlier, the trial court directed the jail authorities to release the accused. The direction came after the lawyers of the accused completed the bail formalities.

Two sureties of Rs.200,000 each were submitted to the court on behalf of each of the accused.

The Supreme Court had Friday granted conditional bail to the accused. They were asked to surrender their passports and not to tamper with the evidence.

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

The apex court had Oct 12 granted bail to five other accused in the Rs.14,000 crore Satyam case.

The Andhra Pradesh high court on Aug 30 had rejected the bail petitions of Raju brothers and Srinivas along with the five other accused.

The Supreme Court had on Oct 26 last year cancelled the bail granted to Raju and others by Andhra Pradesh high court in August. However, it granted liberty to the accused to move for fresh bail after July 31 this year if the trial was not completed.

The 56-year-old Ramalinga Raju shocked the corporate India in January 2009 by admitting to fraud in the IT major. While resigning as chairman of the firm, he confessed on Jan 7 that the company cooked its books resulting in an 'inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances' over several years.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had booked 10 people including Ramalinga Raju. Another of his brothers, B. Suryanarayana Raju, who is neither a director nor an employee of the IT firm, had secured anticipatory bail.

PWC auditor Talluri Srinivas was released on bail by the Supreme Court last year.