Ramalinga Raju, disgraced boss of Satyam, has had his bail cancelled by the Indian Supreme Court ahead of hearings on charges of massive accounting fraud at the reseller.

Raju, his brother and and four other ex-Satyam staff implicated in the scandal, must return to prison by 8 November.

The court found that because most of the witnesses were Satyam staff originally recruited by Raju, there was a high risk he could influence their evidence.

The court softened the blow, the Times of India reported, by allowing the men to celebrate Diwali with their families before returning to chokey.

The court is pressing for the case to be wrapped up by 31 July 2011 despite "voluminous evidence impeding expeditious completion of trial", in the words of the paper. It wants prosecutors to edit down the vast collection of documents and reduce the witness list from its current 400 people expected in court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation said it was still awaiting replies from regulators in six countries - the US, UK, Belgium and Mauritius.

The Supreme Court made clear that its cancellation of bail should have no bearing on anyone's view of the guilt or innocence of the accused.

The extraordinary series of frauds came to light when Raju was forced to write to the board of directors admitting years of dodgy accounting. ®