NSE co-location case – the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the stock exchange – is being investigated by the CBI.
The CBI carried out searches on Saturday morning in the fraud case linked to the National Stock Exchange (NSE), officials said. In all, searches were being carried out in at least 10 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Noida, Gurugram, among other cities.
On alleged irregularities at the country’s largest stock exchange, an FIR was filed in 2018. As a part of the co-location case, the central probe agency is investigating improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stock brokers.
And former NSE chief Chitra Ramakrishna is one of the top accused. Her exchange of emails with a “Himalayan yogi” over the management have been cited by market regulator SEBI in a report.
Former Group Operating Officer (GOO) of the NSE, Anand Subramanian, is also another accused. While Ramakrishna was arrested on March 6 in the co-location case, Subramanian was arrested in February.
They have both been accused of giving unfair access to NSE’s trading system to Delhi-based stock broker OPG Securities Pvt Ltd and its owner, Sanjay Gupta.
Earlier this week, a Delhi court had denied Ramakrishna bail as the judge quoted legendary singer Bob Dylan.
“It appears that accused Chitra Ramakrishna, prima facie seems to have been running the affairs of NSE akin to that of a private club. Singer-writer, Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan once said ‘money doesn’t talk, it swears’, which is a song of the 1964 song album ‘It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding’. It means that money not only has influence, but it has great influence, even a perverse influence on people,” special CBI judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said during the hearing.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against her last month.
A report by market regulator SEBI in February had said that a “mysterious Himalayan yogi” was guiding the actions of Ramkrishna. While there has been speculation that Subramanian was the “yogi”, there has not been a confirmation from the CBI.
Subramanian was initially appointed as Ramakrishna’s advisor and later elevated to the top post.
“It was alleged that the owner and promoter of the said private company abused the server architecture of the NSE in a conspiracy with unidentified officials of the NSE. It was also alleged that unidentified officials of NSE, Mumbai had provided unfair access to the said company using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2012 that enabled it to log in first to the exchange server of the stock exchange that helped to get the data before any other broker in the market,” the CBI has alleged in the FIR, a PTI report said.
(With inputs from PTI)
