Court Grants Bail to Satyam Founder Ramalinga Raju

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Ramalinga Raju, founder and former chairman of outsourcing firm Satyam Computer Services Ltd, in a $1.5 billion financial fraud case, after the CBI failed to file charges on time.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not file a charge-sheet against Raju within the statutory period, according to a court order. Charge sheet against an accused has to be filed within 90 days of arrest according to Indian law.

Raju, a management graduate from Ohio University who founded Satyam in 1987, shocked investors in January 2009 when he revealed that the firm's profits had been overstated for years and assets falsified in a fraud allegedly worth more than $1.5 billion.

In November 2010, he surrendered to a lower court after the Supreme Court in August cancelled a bail granted to him by a lower court in Hyderabad, where Satyam is based.

In an auction in April last year, Satyam was sold to Indian IT firm Tech Mahindra, majority-owned by automaker Mahindra & Mahindra and partly-owned by British telecoms firm BT Plc. It was subsequently renamed Mahindra Satyam.