SC cancels bails of PwC partner Gopalakrishnan, Satyam's Gupta

New Delhi, Apr 21 (PTI) The Supreme Court of India on
Thursday cancelled the bails granted to Price Waterhouse
partner Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Satyam's internal auditor
V S Prabhakar Gupta, directing them to surrender by April 30.
A bench comprising Justice P Sathasivam and Justice B S
Chauhan cancelled their bail and directed them to surrender
within this period, failing which the central investigative
agency will take steps to arrest them.
The apex court, which had on April 18 reserved its order,
said it was cancelling the bail of the accused after looking
into allegations in the chargesheet filed by the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The orders were passed on CBI's plea seeking cancellation
of bail granted to Gopalakrishnan, partner of the global
auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and Gupta, internal audit
head of the scam-hit IT firm Satyam Computers.
The CBI had challenged the bail granted to Gopalakrishnan
and Gupta, both accused in the allegedly Rs 14,000 crore-
Satyam scam, by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in June 2010.
Its plea was opposed by the counsels appearing for
Gopalakrishnan and Gupta, who submitted that the investigating
agency had approached the apex court ten months after the
order passed by high court.
They further submitted that the Supreme Court had
already given bail to one of the PWC auditors of Satyam-
Talluri Srinivas- even as the CBI is seeking to send another
auditor Gopalkrishnan behind the bars.
However, CBI contended this, saying there was difference
in the role of Talluri Srinivas and Gopalkrishnan in the
Satyam case.
"Talluri was (there)for the period of last one year. He
merely followed the principles of Gopalkrishnan. Gopalkrishnan
has take exorbitant fee from the company (Satyam). He even
took charges for other services... It may be that the money
was to help them (Raju) in conspiracy," said Additional
Solicitor General H P Rawal appearing for CBI.
The bench also agreed and said "both (Talluri and
Gopalkrishnan) are on different footing. It cannot be a
precedent".
The Supreme Court on October 26 last year had also
cancelled the bail granted to B Ramalinga Raju, the founding
chairman of Satyam Computers (now Mahindra Satyam), and five
others.