Satyam case: court orders release of accused Talluri Srinivas

In a setback to CBI, a city court today rejected the investigating agency's plea and ordered release of Talluri Srinivas, an accused in the multi-crore Satyam fraud case.

Rejecting CBI objections, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate granted permission for immediate release of the former auditor of Pricewaterhouse Coopers from Chanchalguda jail, where he was lodged along with other Satyam accused.

Srinivas was already granted bail by Supreme Court on February 4 in one of the case in the Satyam fraud.

However, CBI had opposed release of Srinivas stating that he was involved in another case relating to income tax offences for which the CBI had already filed the charge sheet.

The Supreme Court bail order did not reflect the second case in which Srinivas was issued charge sheet by the CBI over filing of "false" income tax returns along with Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and others, the CBI counsel had argued.

The magistrate observed that all the cases related to Satyam fraud only and the bail granted by the apex court is applicable to Srinivas.

In January last year, Srinivas was arrested along with his Pricewaterhouse senior S Gopalakrishnan for allegedly conniving with Raju and others.
       
Among the 10 accused, Srinivas is the first to be released on bail while another accused B Suryanarayana, brother of Raju, was already on anticipatory bail.