Satyam scam: PwC auditor declined bail

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to grant bail to PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor Subramani Gopalkrishnan, who was arrested in Rs 7,136-crore (Rs 71.36-billion) Satyam fraud for allegedly conniving with its founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju and other aides.

However, a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma permitted Gopalkrishnan, then working as a partner of the global accounting firm, to renew his bail application over delay by probe agency CBI in filing the third chargesheet. Following it, the court permitted Subramani Gopalkrishnan's to withdraw his bail petition.

During the proceedings of the court, senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, representing Gopalkrishnan, said his client was wrongly prosecuted as he was only a partner of PwC and not an employee of Satyam.

"All the allegations against him are in verbatim only. He was working as a part of PWC and not an employee of Satyam. Besides, the trial in this case has not been started," he said.

Opposing it, additional solicitor general H P Rawal said main accused B Ramalinga Raju is in hospital and so the charges could not be framed.

The Andhra Pradesh high court had rejected the bail plea of Gopalakrishnan and another auditor Talluri Srinivas in December last year.

However, later Srinivas got bail from the apex court on February 3 after he was asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) and two sureties of like amount and surrender of his passport as conditions.

The auditors were arrested on January 24, 2009, on the charge of conspiring in the fraud and had been in judicial custody since then in Hyderabad.

On March 15, the apex court had dismissed the bail plea Ramalinga Raju saying he cannot be released until the main witnesses in the case are examined.

It also said Raju can file bail application at a later stage when all the main witnesses are examined.