Rajus bail doesnt weaken Satyam case,says CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday said the case against Ramalinga Raju has not weakened despite the Andhra Pradesh High Court granting bail to the former Satyam chief.

The Central Bureau of Investigation CBI on Thursday said the case against Ramalinga Raju has not weakened despite the Andhra Pradesh High Court granting bail to the former Satyam chief. The investigation agency said it is in the process of moving the Supreme Court and would be filing an appeal in the next few days.

VV Lakashminarayan,DIG,CBI,said the bail order is not a setback for the agency. We have already moved the Supreme Court contesting the bails granted to other accused in the case recently and we will be filing a similar appeal shortly opposing the bail granted to Ramalinga Raju as well, he said.

The CBI had argued that if Raju is let out on bail,he may influence the 430-odd witnesses constituting Satyam employees,Rajus relatives,neighbours and others and tamper with evidences. It had even told in November last year that the scam involves financial forgery of over Rs 14,000 crore.

But Raju sought bail in the high court on health grounds and was eventually granted after spending 19 months in what people called a glorified prison in a special ward of a local hospital. Some lawyers FE spoke to in Hyderabad said the case has already weakened.

The three chargesheets filed against the accused had run into over 65,000 pages. There were reports from multiple investigating agencies,which is indeed a daunting task to decipher, the sources added.

The sources also said CBI could not convince the local court,which could have prevented him,in getting bail. According to them,the main accused is influential and could tamper the evidences even while Rajus counsel say he is still ill and will always abide by the court of law. They said the welfare of the case is diluted at present.

Raju was charged under various sections of IPC,including Section 120B for criminal conspiracy,Sec 409 for breach of trust,Sec 420 for cheating,Sec 468 and 471 for forgery and many more. Earlier,the Andhra Pradesh High Court had granted bail to the five accused,including Rajus bother B Rama Raju and the former CFO of Satyam Computers,Vadlamani Srinivas,in the multi-crore accounting scam. As of now,all the 10 accused in the scam are free.