Ex-NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna sent to 7-day CBI custody

Her custody was justified as it was required to find out the detailed modus operandi adopted by Ramkrishna and the other accused, including former group operating officer Anand Subramanian, additional sessions judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.

The scandal at the National Stock Exchange over unequal access to its trading system could be of “unimaginable magnitude,” a Delhi court remarked on Monday while sending Chitra Ramkrishna, former chief executive of the bourse, to seven days of judicial custody so that the Central Bureau of Investigation can interrogate her on alleged misgovernance.

Ex-NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna.(Reuters file photo)

Her custody was justified as it was required to find out the detailed modus operandi adopted by Ramkrishna and the other accused, including former group operating officer Anand Subramanian, additional sessions judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.

“Custodial interrogation of this accused would also be required for confronting her with the said co-accused (Subramanian), who is already in police custody remand at present, as also in order to find out the entire ramifications of the transactions in question, and also to dig out voluminous digital evidence pertaining to this case, as also to find out the role of other players in this case of swindling the institutional investors, foreign institutional investors and honest retail investors,” the judge noted in his order.

Ramkrishna is charged with leaking sensitive information to the co-accused and others, initially claiming that she was acting on the advice of a so-called Himalayan yogi, which the investigators believe was none other than Subramanian.

On February 25, the federal agency arrested Subramanian after expanding its probe into the scam in the exchange, following “fresh facts” in a report by the capital markets regulator that referred to the mysterious yogi guiding the actions of Ramkrishna.

On Monday, the agency in its remand papers seeking custody for 14 days for Ramakrishna said she hatched a criminal conspiracy with Subramanian and abused her official position while getting him appointed as chief strategic advisor, a post especially created for him.

The CBI has said Ramkrishna has been evasive in her replies and gave incorrect statements to the investigating officer. The prosecutor told the court that during a confrontation with Subramanian, Ramkrishna refused to recognize him.

On March 5, the court had denied anticipatory bail to Ramkrishna, saying that the due to alleged “financial skullduggery,” huge losses may have been caused to stockbrokers and investors.

The court had pulled up the CBI for its lackadaisical investigation in the case and said the agency had not taken action against the main beneficiaries of the co-location scam, “who seem to be enjoying merrily at the expense of common citizenry”.

Ramkrishna had left the stock exchange in December 2016. On February 11, the markets regulator charged Ramkrishna and others with misgovernance.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has levied a fine of ₹3 crore on Ramkrishna, ₹2 crore each on the bourse, Subramanian, and former chief Ravi Narain, and ₹6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was chief regulatory and compliance officer.

The CBI, which was probing the co-location scam since 2018 against a Delhi-based stockbroker, swung into action after the SEBI report that showed alleged abuse of power by the then top brass of the National Stock Exchange.

The agency expanded its probe and grilled Ramkrishna, Narain and Subramanian in connection with the swindle.

The central probe agency booked stockbroker Sanjay Gupta, owner of Delhi-based OPG Securities, in 2018 for allegedly making gains by getting early access to the stock market’s trading system, officials said.