Satyam case: Court to hear arguments on bail pleas tomorrow

HYDERABAD: A local court will take up tomorrow the appeals filed by Satyam Computers founder B Ramalinga Raju and nine others, seeking suspension of their sentences in the multi-crore accounting fraud in the erstwhile IT company.

Arguments for suspending the sentences as well as for granting bail will come up before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge (MSJ) court here tomorrow.

Raju, the kingpin of the scam, and nine other convicts, currently lodged in Cherlapally Central Prison, had filed the appeals in the MSJ court on Monday, challenging their conviction by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Sessions Court (ACMM) in the over Rs 7,000-crore scandal that came to light in 2009.

The Hyderabad High Court had on April 30 declined to admit appeals filed by Raju and others against their conviction, observing that it was not maintainable before it and asked them to move the sessions court.

On April 9, the ACMM, which tried the corporate fraud case probed by the CBI, had sentenced Raju and others, including his brother Rama Raju, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for criminal conspiracy and cheating, among other offences.

It had also imposed Rs 5.5-crore fine on Raju and his brother Rama Raju.