new delhi supreme court on friday granted bail to b ramalinga raju former chairman of satyam computer services ltd nearly three years after he confessed to manipulating the firms accounts which saw satyam shares hit rock bottom causing an estimated loss of rs 14000 crore to investors and the company the apex court which had on october 26 last year cancelled the bail granted to raju by andhra pradesh high court on friday brushed aside the centres opposition to his bail plea and said no useful purpose would be served by keeping raju his brother b rama raju and former chief finance officer of satyam v srinivas in jail as the prosecution was about to finish presenting its evidence against them that the accused had spent two years and eight months in prison weighed with a bench of justices dalveer bhandari and dipak misra as they ordered their release from hyderabads chanchalguda prison on furnishing a personal bond of rs 2 lakh each with two sureties of like amount despite reservations expressed by additional solicitor general harin raval raval tried to distinguish the case of the three accused from the others who were granted bail by the bench on october 12 raval said raju and the two other bail applicants were the masterminds of the scam and were too influential to be granted bail the period of incarceration undergone and the virtual completion of prosecution evidence tilted the scales in favour of grant of bail to the accused however it issued a stern warning to those released on bail not to abuse the bail conditions or be seen even remotely as attempting to influence the witnesses the accused shall not directly or indirectly influence the witnesses in any manner in case they abuse the bail or attempt influencing witnesses cbi will be free to move the supreme court for cancellation of bail granted to them the bench said the court also reminded the accused about their undertaking not to prolong the trial the accused had promised that they would not crossexamine the given up witnesses while cancelling rajus bail on october 26 last year the apex court had asked the trial court to complete the proceedings by july 31 and told the accused to move fresh bail plea if the trial did not get completed by then though the trial is yet to be completed the court on friday expressed satisfaction at the pace of proceedings before a hyderabad trial court it said given the voluminous documents which ran to more than one lakh pages and number of witnesses exceeding 650 the trial court and prosecution with the cooperation of accused had done a tremendous job in proceeding this far we have been able to achieve the object of expediting the trial the bench said cbi had made a strong pitch for rejection of rajus bail plea and had said in its counteraffidavit that the former satyam chief during the period of fraudulent manipulation of company accounts secured his and