NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation on a petition filed by former Chairman of Satyam Computers Ramalinga Raju and four other former employees challenging the High Court order rejecting their bail plea. A Bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma while disposing of the petition directed the CBI to file its reply within two weeks on the issue of granting bail to the petitioners.Besides Raju, the four others include former Satyam employees G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju, Ch Srisailam and V S Prabhakar Gupta, the company’s former chief internal auditor. All of them were arrested for their alleged roles in the multi-crore accounting fraud. On August30, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had rejected their bail plea.As per the CBI case, Ramalinga Raju and his brother and former MD B Rama Raju are the prime accused in the case. The duo are still in judicial custody. Presently, the five petitioners, who went in appeal against the HC order, along with Satyam’s former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas and the former Price Water House Cooper’s auditor Subramani Gopalakrishnan are lodged at the Chanchalguda Central Prison in Hyderabad.Seeking the apex court’s intervention, the petitioners contended that the trial in the Satyam fraud case was not completed within the time stipulated by the Supreme Court -- of July 31-- and this despite the fact that all the prosecution witnesses were examined.It was in October 2010 that the apex court held that Raju could move the apex court for bail only after July 31, 2011 if the trial in the case was not completed in the trial court.
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