Delhi court sends former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna to 14-day judicial custody

A Delhi court on Monday sent to 14-day judicial custody the former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the co-location scam case. 

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal ordered that Ramakrishna be physically produced before the court next on March 28. The CBI produced the accused before court upon the expiry of her 7-day custody and urged it to remand her to judicial custody.

The probe agency had arrested Ramkrishna on March 6, a day after her anticipatory bail application was dismissed by the court. 

The CBI had recently questioned Ramkrishna in the matter. The Income Tax (I-T) Department earlier raided various premises linked to Ramkrishna in Mumbai and Chennai. 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 stock brokers.

In the co-location facility offered by NSE, brokers could place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets. It is alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the co-location facility to make windfall profits.

Earlier, capital markets regulator Sebi penalized the NSE, Ramkrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level. Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

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

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