The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday finally granted bail to Ramalinga Raju after 17 long months. Raju, ex-CEO of Satyam and chief perpetrator of the Rs. 7000 crore ($ 1.5 billion) Satyam scam has been in jail ever since his arrest on January 9, 2009.

With Raju’s bail, all 10 perpetrators in the scam have been released. This came as a considerable setback for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the chief investigating agency in the case. Raju’s lawyer, who has been representing him ever since the start of the trial, Bharat Kumar, told media “The investigation in the case was over and there was no scope for tampering evidence. Besides, his health condition is not good. The bail will allow Raju to participate meaningfully in the trial by the special court.” 

Raju who has been admitted in the state-owned Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad for treatment of Hepatitis C and other ailments since September last year was released on two sureties of Rs. 20 lakh each ($ 43,000). The High Court released Raju on the condition of his poor health and has asked him to present himself before the local magistrate on a daily basis. The court has also instructed him to co-operate in the investigations.

Live Mint reports that CBI was represented by Additional Solicitor General, H.P. Raval. During his arguments, he emphasized on the size of the fraud, terming it as “economic terrorism”. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had already granted bail to Raju’s brother, B. Rama Raju. The CBI has already approached the apex court against this bail and ex-CFO, Srinivas Vadlamani’s bail. 

However, the Chairman of the Supreme Court Bar Association and Senior Counsel, Ram Jethmalani speaking to Money Control said, “The media’s criticism is ill-informed”. The press is going too far in trying to criticize every person who gets his liberty just because you don’t like him,” he added.

On the issue of progress of the case for the last 17 months Jethmalani said, “I cannot comment on the merits of the case because I don’t study every paper connected with the case and I don’t give irresponsible opinions. But if you are talking about the man being released on bail, I think bail is almost a matter of rights. Bail is not to be denied merely because the person has committed some heinous offence. The bail is to be denied only to a person who is likely to abscond or who is likely to interfere with the evidence or witnesses. In other words frustrate the whole process of justice. I don’t think there is any such allegation against the poor fellow. He has got bail, after so long in custody on health grounds then why should the press be so critical about it? I cannot even understand.”

When the CNBC anchor quizzed Jethmalani on the issue of how Raju should be denied bail, since Satyam is the largest corporate scandal in India and Ramalinga Raju has confessed to the offence, he said “This is ill-informed criticism. You don’t know the law relating to bail. Bail is not to be denied merely because the person has committed some kind of an offence, which you don’t like. Bail is made only for the purpose of ensuring that he will stand his trial. This press is going too far in trying to criticize every person who gets his liberty just because you don’t like him.