Chitra Ramkrishna, former NSE CEO arrested in co-location case: Report

Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), was arrested late on March 6 in the NSE co-location case, according to CNBC TV18.

Officials confirmed to the TV station that she was apprehended in Delhi, a day after a court in the national capital denied her anticipatory release application.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the co-location case, had argued against her pre-arrest plea, stating she was “evasive” and refused to cooperate with investigators.

The agency questioned Ramkrishna for three days, during which she allegedly did to provide correct responses to the investigators, according to officials on March 5.

The CBI detained former NSE group operating officer Anand Subramanian on February 25 after broadening its investigation into a co-location scam in the exchange, citing “new findings” in a SEBI report that referred to a mysterious “yogi” guiding Ramkrishna’s conduct.

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In the forensic audit, Subramanian was allegedly referred to as the “yogi,” with whom Ramkrishna is accused of sharing privileged information. However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) dismissed the claim in its final report.

Ramkrishna, who took over as CEO of the NSE in 2013 after former CEO Ravi Narain stepped down, had recruited Subramanian as her advisor. He was eventually promoted to GOO, with a hefty annual salary of Rs 4.21 crore.

A review of her e-mail exchanges during the SEBI-ordered audit revealed that Subramanian’s contentious selection and subsequent elevation, as well as critical decisions, were guided by an anonymous person, whom Ramkrishna said was a formless enigmatic “yogi” living in the Himalayas.

Ramkrishna resigned from the NSE in December 2016.

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On February 11, the SEBI charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance failures in Subramanian’s appointment as chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as GOO and MD advisor.

SEBI fined Ramkrishna Rs 3 crore, NSE, Subramanian, former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain Rs 2 crore apiece, and V R Narasimhan, the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer, Rs 6 lakh.

The CBI, which has been investigating the co-location scandal against a Delhi-based stock broker since 2018, acted in response to the SEBI report, which revealed alleged abuse of authority by the NSE’s then-top brass.

In conjunction with the scam, the bureau widened its investigation and questioned Ramkrishna, Narain, and Subramanian.

According to sources, the government inquiry agency arrested stock broker Sanjay Gupta, the owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Private Limited, in 2018 for allegedly profiting from early access to the stock market trading system.