India's 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 federal investigative agency failed to file charges on time.

The Central Bureau of Investigation did not file a charge-sheet against Raju within the statutory period, according to a court order seen by Reuters.

According to Indian law, charge sheet against an accused has to be filed within 90 days of arrest.

Raju, a management graduate from Ohio University who founded Satyam in 1987, shocked investors in January 2009 when he said 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 in south India after the Supreme Court in August canceled 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 part-owned by British telecoms firm BT Plc.

It was subsequently renamed Mahindra Satyam.

(Reporting by R. Venkatraman; Writing by Anurag Kotoky; Editing by Rajesh Pandathil)

India Mahindra Satyam