Chitra Ramkrishna. (File) THE CBI told a Delhi court on Friday that former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian was the “Himalayan Yogi” who is alleged to have influenced the decisions of Chitra Ramkrishna, the NSE’s former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
On February 11, Ramkrishna was fined Rs 3 crore by SEBI for allegedly violating rules in the appointment of Subramanian. According to SEBI, several key decisions taken by Ramkrishna during her tenure as NSE’s MD and CEO from 2013 to 2016, including Subramanian’s appointment, were guided by an unidentified yogi “who may be largely dwelling in the Himalayan Ranges”.
An Ernst and Young audit report had indicated that the yogi may be Subramanian himself. Ramkrishna is alleged to have shared confidential information of the bourse with the “Himalayan Yogi”.
Earlier, both Subramanian and Ramkrishna were arrested in a 2018 case of alleged manipulation of the bourse.
Subramanian’s bail plea hearing came up before Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal on Friday. When the CBI argued that Subramanian may flee, the judge remarked that he had not fled in the last four years. The CBI then told the court that Subramanian “thought he can be a yogi for four years, no one would identify. He was operating the email IDs.”
Subramanian’s lawyer, Arshdeep, told the court that the scam took place in 2010-2014, while he was appointed in 2013. He said two internal inquiries by SEBI had not found anything against Subramanian. “Applicant has been completely exonerated by SEBI and it has been affirmed that he has no role to play in the alleged actions,” he said.
The judge said: “You are the Himalayan Yogi, living in the high reaches of the Himalayas with divine powers. CBI was in hibernation for four years. They suddenly woke up now. I don’t know why.”
Responding for Subramanian, his lawyer said: “I am not the yogi”.
Opposing the bail plea, the CBI said it had recovered 832 GB of data. The CBI prosecutor, V K Pathak, told the court that Subramanian was “involved in the scam”, was known to Ramkrishna, and had influenced her decision-making. He said the agency has emails to show this.
“There are various malpractices by Chitra. They visited tax havens like Seychelles and Mauritius. This aspect has to be investigated. They were gaining pecuniary advantage. He was in a high position and was taking decisions. In the email exchanges between Chitra and Subramanian, it was found that sensitive information was exchanged. He was the main advisor to the MD. He has not revealed the identity of the accused persons. He is evasive in his replies,” the CBI told the court.
Subramanian’s lawyer said no offence was made out even from a reading of the FIR. “In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant’s role in the unfair access to co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Ltd… he is not in any manner connected with the alleged complaint,” he said.
The court will pronounce its order on March 24.
The 2018 case pertains to charges of preferential access to the trading system to some brokers through the co-location facility (where brokers can buy “rack space” for their servers) at the NSE, early login and “dark fibre”, which can allow a trader split-second faster access to the data feed of the exchange. Even a split-second edge is considered capable of bringing huge gains to a trader.
The CBI had booked Sanjay Gupta, owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt Ltd, and others in the case. According to CBI, between 2010 and 2014, Gupta abused the NSE server architecture, in criminal conspiracy with unknown officials of NSE, and even bribed SEBI officials. Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.
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