NSE Scam Ex-NSE CEO Chitra Ramakrishna sent to 7-day CBI custody
A Special CBI Court on Monday sent former Chief Executive Officer of the National Stock Exchange Chitra Ramakrishna to a seven-day CBI custody in connection with the NSE co-location case.
The CBI arrested Ramakrishna on Sunday a day after a court in the national capital rejected her anticipatory bail plea.
On Monday, the CBI produced her before the Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal, seeking a 14-day custodial interrogation in the case.
The 59-year-old has been on the CBI's radar in relation to an investigation involving former NSE employee Anand Subramaniam.
She had been accused of leaking confidential information about the National Stock Exchange via email with a "yogi who lives in the Himalayas".
It is suspected that this "yogi" was actually Anand Subramaniam, who was arrested in connection with the case in early March.
Earlier, during the hearing in the court, the CBI said that Chitra refused to answer questions when confronted with Anand Subramanian.
Anand Subramanian, who did not have proper qualifications, was appointed as a consultant with NSE by Chitra Ramkrishna without following due procedure.
CBI started interrogating Ramkrishna in February in connection with certain irregularities.
It issued lookout notices against Ramakrishna, former NSE CFO Anand Subramanian and Ravi Narain for the investigation.
Ramkrishna and Subramanian have been barred from dealing with any market infrastructure institution or any intermediary registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for three years, while Narain has been barred for two years.
The NSE colocation case is related to multiple events that took place one after the other where some private individuals and unknown NSE and SEBI officials were accused of preferential access to the NSE's server architecture and misuse of the colocation facility, stated the report.
The scam came to light after a whistleblower wrote to the market regulator in January 2015, detailing the flaws in the NSE’s colocation system, and the way in which some brokers had used those loopholes in connivance with some officials of the NSE.
Subramanian was the chief strategic advisor from April 1, 2013 before he was re-designated from April 1, 2015 until October 21, 2016.
Ramkrishna was the CEO and Managing Director of the National Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2016 before she quit citing "personal reasons".
She is under probe for an alleged "glaring breach" of regulations involving sharing confidential financial data with a 'yogi' living in the Himalayas.
The 'tick by tick' case was registered against OPG Securities; its Managing Director, Sanjay Gupta; Ajay Shah, who helped develop the software.
It also booked unknown officials from the NSE and regulatory body SEBI for alleged stock market manipulation from 2010 to 2014.
It has been alleged that Sanjay Gupta had unfair access to this feed and this enabled his company, OPG Security Pvt Ltd, to get access to financial data a split second faster than his rivals.
Ramakrishna and others were searched by the Income Tax Department in connection with the allegations that she shared the bourse's financial projections, business plans and board agenda with a spiritual guru.
The guru was running the exchange and Ramkrishna was "a puppet", SEBI has claimed.
Ramkrishna has, however, claimed the information-sharing did not compromise NSE operations.
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