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Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010
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National

Court notice to Satyam accused

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to B. Rama Raju and four others, accused in the Rs. 14,000 crore-Satyam fraud case to show cause as to why their bail granted by the Andhra Pradesh High court should not be cancelled.

A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma issued notice to the five accused on appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging the High Court order. The Bench granted two weeks for them to file their response.

Besides Rama Raju, brother of B. Ramalinga Raju, the others to whom notice had been issued are: V. Srinivas, G. Ramakrishna, Venkatapathi Raju and Ch. Srisailam. The High Court had granted bail to the five accused considering that the management had already been transferred to another company and that there was no possibility of the trial being completed in six months, as submitted by the CBI.

Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the CBI, submitted that the High Court had come to a wrong conclusion. He also found fault with the finding that “the possibility of tampering of records by the petitioners does not arise.” Mr. Subramaniam, seeking cancellation of the bail, said that the release of the respondents from judicial custody at this stage would jeopardise the trial as most of the witnesses were given employment by the accused and many witnesses had given statements under Section 164 of The Code of Criminal Procedure.

He said that at this stage witnesses would not come forward to depose against the respondents and though the management had changed, the accused had access to employees who had been employed by them.

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