The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered cancellation of bail granted by the Andhra Pradesh High Court to B. Ramalinga Raju and five others, accused in the Rs. 14,000-crore Satyam fraud case.
A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma allowed appeals by the Central Bureau of Investigation and said all the accused should surrender before the trial court by November 8.
The High Court granted bail to Mr. Ramalinga Raju, B. Rama Raju, V. Srinivas, G. Ramakrishna, Venkatapathi Raju and Ch. Srisailam, considering that the management of Satyam Computers had already been transferred to another company and there was no possibility of completion of trial in six months as submitted by the CBI.
The Bench directed the Special Court in Hyderabad to complete the trial by July 31, 2011, failing which the accused would be at liberty to approach the High Court for bail.
The Bench faulted the High Court for not giving detailed reasons. “Normally, the Supreme Court does not interfere in such cases where bail has been granted by the High Court, but the facts of the case demand that we should interfere.” Mr. Ramalinga Raju, who was arrested on January 9 last year was released on bail on August 18 this year. The other accused got bail in July.
