Former NSE boss Chitra Ramkrishna has been sent to CBI custody for 7 days by a Delhi court. She was arrested by the CBI on Sunday night in the co-location scam case, after her anticipatory bail application was rejected on Saturday.
She was presented before special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal by the CBI and sought a 14-day custodial interrogation in the case. The CBI alleged that her custodial interrogation was needed to unearth the criminal conspiracy and the role of other NSE officials and brokers in the company.
“She is also required to be confronted with co-accused Anand Subramanian, who is already in police custody of CBI, to understand the magnitude and scope of the criminal conspiracy. She is also required to be confronted with digital evidence available on record,” the agency told the court.
The CBI further submitted that the material already collected in the present case show that Ramkrishna in conspiracy with Subramanian had improperly hired him by coercing the HR department of NSE.
“Thereafter, she in conspiracy with Subramanian influenced the officials of NSE to facilitate him in having access to important decision making processes of the NSE. During the same period M/s OPG Securities was gaining undue advantages in NSE by logging into secondary server,” it said.
Ramkrishna was quizzed by the probe agency for 3 days in February and searched were also carried out at her residence on February 24 and 25.
The former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chief Executive has been accused of grave irregularities in the stock market including sharing privileged information with an outsider she dubbed a “Himalayan yogi”.
The special court of the CBI while dismissing her bail application, had said that Ramkrishna introduced a non-existent person to mislead the investigators, showing prima facie connivance in the matter.
The court further said the allegations against the former NSE CEO are “grave and serious” and no no grounds for anticipatory bail have been established so far; the court was also critical of the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the CBI for not acting on the matter sooner.
The capital markets regulator in its February 11 order alleged that Ramkrishna leaked sensitive information of India’s biggest exchange to an unidentified person who she referred to as “Yogi”.
The Sebi order also accused Ramakrishna of appointing Subramanian former group operating officer (GOO), in violation of the company’s human resources policies.
The co-location scam pertains to certain entities being given unfair access to NSE servers between 2012 and 2014, allowing them a windfall. The court also rebuked the CBI for its handling of the case.
