The Central Bureau of Investigation issued a lookout
notice against the former CEO of the National Stock Exchange, Chitra
Ramkrishna, over alleged irregularities, news agency PTI reported. On
Thursday, the income tax department raided the premises of Ramkrishna as a
part of the tax evasion investigation. Look-out notices have also been issued
against another former CEO Ravi Narain and former COO Anand Subramanian as
reported by news agency Mint.
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The CBI has started questioning Ramkrishna after issuing a
lookout notice in connection with the NSE co-location case in Mumbai, reported
ANI. The CBI wants to question Ramakrishna to further investigate the case of
preferential access to the NSE Algo-trading platform.
The CBI probe is the expansion of the 2018 case in light
of revelations made by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that
Ramkrishna has passed on confidential information to a Himalayan Yogi.
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The CBI investigation pertains to another scam that took
place during Ramkrishna’s tenure. It was alleged that some traders received
preferential access to NSE’s co-location facilities like they used to log in
early, got split-second access to the exchange data feed. It was also alleged
that some traders had multiple IP addresses for accessing exchange data. The
CBI had booked Sanjay Gupta, owner of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt. Ltd, his
brother-in-law Aman Kakrady, Ajay Shah, who helped Gupta’s operations by
developing and providing a software called Chanakya, and some other unnamed
officials of NSE and SEBI.
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Ramkrishna had come in the headlines after a recent Sebi
order on February 11. It said she was
influenced by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of
Anand Subramanian as the exchange’s group operating officer and advisor to the
managing director (MD).
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Ramkrishna and others were charged by SEBI with
allegations of governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian and his
re-designation. The market regulator also imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore on
Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the NSE, Subramanian, Ravi Narain, former NSE MD
and CEO, and Rs 6 lakh on VR Narasimhan, the chief regulatory officer and
compliance officer.