SC: Notice to CBI on bail plea of Satyam's Ramalinga Raju

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Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and his brother B Rama Raju, arrested in connection with the multi-crore accounting fraud involving the IT firm, will have to remain in jail during Diwali as the Supreme Court on Friday refused to give them interim relief saying they have delayed in approaching it.

The apex court, however, agreed to give an early hearing to their pleas and issued notice to CBI for November 3, after the Diwali break.

"Why you delayed in filing the petition," the bench asked when senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the brothers, pleaded for interim relief saying five other accused in the case have recently been granted bail by the apex court.

Apart from the two brothers, former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas also moved court seeking bail. The apex court had on October 12 granted bail to five other accused in the case.

The former Satyam employees, who were granted bail, are its former internal chief auditor V S Prabhakar Gupta besides executives G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and Ch Srisailam.

The fifth accused, who got the bail, is the former auditor of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Subramani Gopalakrishnan.

The five had approached the apex court challenging the August 30 order of Andhra Pradesh High Court which had rejected their bail pleas.

Of the total 10 accused in the case, Satyam's founder B Ramalinga Raju's younger brother B Suryanarayana Raju and former PWC auditor T Srinivas had already been granted bail by different courts earlier.

For his alleged role in the accounting fraud, Satyam Computer's founder and its former chairman Ramalinga Raju had been arrested first in January 2009 but his bail was cancelled in October last year by the Supreme Court.

While cancelling his bail, the apex court had stipulated that the accused would file another bail application only after July 31, 2011, if the trial in the case is not completed in the local court.

Following cancellation of his bail on CBI's plea, Raju had surrendered on November 10 last year before a Hyderabad court adjudicating the country's biggest corporate fraud, allegedly to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore.