Former NSE CEO Chitra Ramakrishna, lodged in Tihar Jail for her alleged role in money laundering case, has given her statement to the Enforcement Directorate.
Former NSE CEO Chitra Ramakrishna, lodged in Tihar Jail for her alleged role in money laundering case, has given her statement to the Enforcement Directorate.
Enforcement Directorate has recently recorded the statement of the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSE Chitra RamakrishnaHe and others are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail as part of a money laundering probe against him, officials said on Tuesday.
The recording of the statement was done on two occasions inside the jail. He said the statement has been recorded under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Ramakrishna has been lodged in Tihar Jail after he was arrested on March 6 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the alleged National Stock Exchange (NSE) co-location scam case and the probe is linked to other governance irregularities.
The Federal Investigation Agency Enforcement Directorate is also probing the matter. The Income Tax Department is the third agency to probe these allegations of irregularities in the National Stock Exchange.
NSE co-location scam
ED’s money laundering probe pertains to alleged irregularities in the NSE co-location case. Alleged governance lapse in the appointment of Anand Subramaniam His re-designation as Chief Strategic Advisor and as Group Operations Officer and Advisor to the then MD (Ramakrishna).
The ED had raided the premises of the touts involved in the co-location case in this case last month.
The Enforcement Directorate case stems from the CBI’s FIR in the co-location case. Ramakrishna and Subramaniam were arrested by the CBI earlier this year and they are currently in jail. The CBI has also filed a charge sheet against them in the court.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) began its investigation into the co-location case in early 2015, when it was brought to light by a ‘whistle-blower’ that some brokers were allegedly allowed to use the co-location facility. Preferential access via Early Login and ‘Dark Fiber’ which can allow a trader split-second fast access to the exchange’s data feed.
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As part of this facility, brokers can place their servers within the stock exchange premises, giving them faster access to the markets. It has been alleged that some brokers with the connivance of insiders made windfall profits by misusing algorithms and co-location facility.
Ramakrishna was promoted as MD and CEO of the exchange on April 1, 2013, and left the exchange in 2016.
The co-location was initiated by NSE during this period, the CBI has alleged.
The action of central agencies against Ramakrishna, Subramaniam and others was resumed after the market regulator SEBI reported on February 11.
It accused Ramakrishna and others of alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramaniam as chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operations officer and advisor to the MD.
CBI sources said Ramakrishna had appointed Subramaniam as his advisor, who was later promoted as Group Operating Officer (GOO) on a hefty pay check of Rs 4.21 crore annually.
Subramaniam’s controversial appointment and subsequent promotion, apart from key decisions, was directed by an unidentified person whom Ramakrishna claimed was a formless mystical yogi living in the Himalayas, during a SEBI-ordered audit of his email exchanges. was stated in the investigation.
The ED and other agencies have widened their probe to include the mysterious “Yogi” angle in their probe.