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Star of software boom: Ramalinga Raju is escorted to Supreme Court

INDIA’S Supreme Court today granted bail to the former chairman of Indian outsourcing giant Satyam, B Ramalinga Raju, who is accused of one of the country`s biggest corporate frauds.The court allowed bail for Raju, 57, his brother B Rama Raju and the company`s former internal auditor Srinivas Vadlamani.The men are being tried for fraud in the case dubbed "India`s Enron" after the US energy giant that collapsed in 2001 in the wake of huge false-accounting revelations.Supreme Court Justice D Bhandari ordered the three men who have been in prison in Hyderabad for nearly three years to relinquish their passports.The top court said bail was appropriate given "the totality of the circumstances" and told each man to post surety of Rs400,000 ($8,000).The court had earlier said the men could seek bail if their trial was not completed within a deadline set by the court of July 2011.The trial in Hyderabad is ongoing.India`s Central Bureau of Investigation had opposed bail, saying there was "every possibility" the accused would seek to "tamper with evidence."Ramalinga Raju`s declaration in early 2009 that he had falsified profits plunged India`s corporate world into turmoil.He and others are accused of embezzling around $3bn from Satyam, which was one of India`s largest outsourcing firms when the scandal erupted.Raju declared in a letter of confession he had overstated profits for years and inflated the company`s balance sheet by more than $1bn.However, he backed away from the confession 18 months later.Tech Mahindra, a unit of Indian vehicle and farm equipment manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra, later bought Hyderabad-based Satyam, allaying fears about its survival.Raju who was educated in India and the US, was one of the stars of the software boom that has been a key driver of India`s economic growth in recent years.The bail order comes after the Supreme Court last month granted bail to five other accused in the Satyam case.

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