The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday questioned former National Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with a 2018 co-location case, ANI reported. The 2018 case pertains to allegations of preferential access to the National Stock Exchange’s algorithmic trading platform.
The CBI said Ramkrishna was being questioned in light of “fresh facts” that have emerged in connection to the case, according to PTI.
In May 2018, the CBI had booked owner of Delhi-based financial advisor firm OPG Securities’ owner Sanjay Gupta and his brother-in-law Aman Kakrady, Ajay Shah and other officials of the National Stock Exchange in connection with the case.
“It was alleged that the owner and promoter of said private company [OPG Securities] abused the server architecture of NSE in conspiracy with unknown officials of NSE,” the CBI had said in the first information report filed in 2018, according to PTI.
The FIR also alleged that unknown officials of the National Stock Exchange had provided “unfair access” to OPG Securities using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2012 that enabled it to login first to the server of the exchange. This allowed the financial services firm to get market data ahead of any other broker, according to the FIR.
Earlier today, the CBI issued circulars against Ramkrishna, another former chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange Ravi Narain and a former group operating officer of the exchange, Anand Subramanian, to prevent them from leaving the country, according to PTI.
Ramkrishna was the CEO and managing director of the exchange from April 2013 to December 2016, while Narain was head of the NSE between April 1994 and March 2013.
Ramakrishna recently made news after the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, had said that she took decisions at the stock exchange allegedly based on the guidance of an unknown Himalayan ascetic. On Thursday, Income Tax officials had carried out searches at premises linked to Ramakrishna in Mumbai. The searches were conducted as part of a tax evasion investigation against her.
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