Court refuses anticipatory bail to NSE’s Ex Chief

PTI, Mar 5, 2022, 4:54 PM IST

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday refused to grant anticipatory bail to former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case.

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal dismissed the anticipatory bail application after hearing arguments from the lawyers appearing for the accused and the CBI.

The CBI had recently questioned Ramkrishna in the matter. The Income Tax (IT) Department earlier raided various premises linked to Chitra Ramkrishna in Mumbai and Chennai.

Ramkrishna has also been on the radar of the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Recently the CBI court had sent Anand Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and advisor to former MD Ramkrishna, to CBI custody.

He was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with the NSE case.

The arrest was made in the case related to the co-location scam, the FIR for which was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country’s largest stock exchange.

The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers.

Earlier, the SEBI had penalised the NSE, its former CEOs Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan, and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

The market regulator observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.