CBI questions former CEO of NSE

The CBI on Friday questioned former CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in view of fresh facts emerging in connection with its ongoing probe into the alleged abuse of co-location facility in the NSE, officials said.

The agency has also opened look out circulars against Ramkrishna, another former CEO Ravi Narain and former COO Anand Subramanian to prevent them from leaving the country.

The central probe agency had booked a owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt. Ltd, Sanjay Gupta and other in connection with alleged abuse of NSE co-location facility to make gains by getting early access to the stock market, they said.

The agency was also probing unidentified officials of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and NSE, Mumbai and other unknown persons.

”It was alleged that the owner and promoter of said private company abused the server architecture of NSE in conspiracy with unknown officials of NSE. It was also alleged that unknown officials of NSE, Mumbai had provided unfair access to said company using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2012 that enabled it to login first to the exchange server of the stock exchange that helped to get the data before any other broker in the market,” the CBI has alleged in the FIR. Ramkrishna hit the headlines after a recent SEBI on February 11 said she was steered 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).

The SEBI charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

Sebi levied a fine of Rs three crore on Ramkrishna, Rs two crore each on the NSE, Subramanian, former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.