A special CBI court has denied anticipatory bail to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former chief executive of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), in the NSE co-location case. The CBI, which is investigating the co-location scam, had argued strongly against granting bail to Ramkrishna.
The Central Bureau of Investigation said Ramkrishna was appointed as Joint Managing Director of NSE in 2009 and promoted to MD and CEO in 2013. The co-location was started by NSE in this period, the investigating agency submitted.
CBI added that Murlidharan Natrajan, CTO, NSETECH, was responsible for the co-location architecture and that he was reporting to Ramkrishna. The agency said Ramkrishna did not cooperate with CBI officials during the investigation, adding that a senior forensic psychologist, roped in to help "extract the truth" from her, observed that Ramkrishna was being evasive in her responses.
Further, CBI said the NSE gave the trading data to Ionfotech Financial Services Pvt Ltd. This data was misused to develop an algorithm for trading products for the securities market participants and was sold to various trading members, thereby giving them an advantage.
Also read:
"Anand Subramanian was appointed as a consultant with NSE by Chitra Ramkrishna without following due procedure. Despite not having proper qualification, he was being paid a very high salary," the CBI said.
Ramkrishna's counsel, arguing for the grant of anticipatory bail, said that Ramkrishna is fully cooperating with CBI and that she made her phone and laptop available for investigation. she provided whatever documents she had in her possession to CBI and is not named in the FIR as an accused. The lawyer said her conversations with a private person (the yogi) had no bearings on her functioning.
The court heard both sides and observed that Ramkrishna's plea matches "no grounds we made out for grant of anticipatory bail" and denied it. The court also pulled up the CBI, saying, "The conduct of CBI is most lackadaisical to say the least, as no action seems to have been taken against main beneficiaries of the present co-location scam. Even SEBI, despite being capital market watch dog, has been too kind and gentle qua the accused persons in the present FIR."
The CBI had earlier
arrested Anand Subramanian, NSE's former group operating officer from Chennai, in the case. Digital forensics data later revealed that Subramanian was the mysterious "yogi" who advised Ramkrishna on crucial NSE matters, and also had access to sensitive data.
As per EY's forensics data report, excerpts of which were accessed by CNBC-TV18, Ramkrishna shared the information either to seek guidance or whenever asked by the user of the email address. She consulted with the ‘yogi’ on NSE's business excellence programs, rating and promotion of NSE employees, FII roadshows, and on discussions with SEBI on norms of listing and regulatory issues.
First Published: Mar 5, 2022 1:24 PM IST
