NSE chief Ashok Chawla quits, to face prosecution in Maxis case

MUMBAI: Ashok Chawla, a former finance secretary to the central government, resigned on Friday as the chairman of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the largest bourse in India in terms of turnover, after CBI got government consent to prosecute him on alleged corruption charges relating to the Aircel-Maxis case. Former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti are co-accused in the case. In mid-November, Chawla had resigned as chairman of Yes Bank after CBI named him in the chargesheet in the same case. He was appointed to NSE as part of the clean-up process following the co-location scam.

NSE, in a communication, said, “Ashok Chawla has resigned as public interest director/ chairman of the board of directors of the NSE with immediate effect in light of recent legal developments.”

Chawla was appointed NSE chairman as part of the clean-up process after the bourse was hit by a case of preferential treatment to some select brokers for high frequency trading (HFT) by giving them faster access from its trading servers. The case, also known as NSE co-location case, led to the resignation of several board members of the bourse including Chitra Ramakrishna, the then managing director, and Ravi Narain, then vice chairman.

Along with Chawla, CBI has received government nod to prosecute four other former and serving bureaucrats. They are Ashok Jha, Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Dipak Kumar Singh, and Ram Sharan, a PTI report said.