The CBI has detained Anand Subramanian, the former group operating officer of the National Stock Exchange, after broadening its three-year investigation into the exchange’s co-location scam in light of “new facts” revealed in a damning Sebi report, officials said on Friday. Late Thursday night, Subramanian was apprehended. He was interrogated in Chennai for days before the agency arrested him. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has charged former NSE CEO Chitra Ramakrishna and others with purported government errors in Subramanian’s selection as a chief strategy advisor and subsequent re-designation group operating officer and advisor to the MD.
Sebi fined Ramkrishna Rs 3 crore, NSE, Subramanian, former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain Rs 2 crore apiece, and V R Narasimhan, the chief regulatory officer, and compliance officer, Rs 6 lakh. It is being said that the agency will take him before a court in Chennai for a transit remand to send him to Delhi.
It is also stated that if the petition is accepted, the CBI will transport him to the capital and present him before a special court to seek his custody remand for questioning in connection with the case at its headquarters. According to officials, an audit report referred to Subramanian as a mystery Yogi, but the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) refuted the claim in its information on February 11.
Subramanian was appointed as Ramkrishna’s advisor when she succeeded former CEO Ravi Narain in 2013. Subramanian was later promoted to Group Operating Officer (GOO) with Rs 4.21 crore.
A review of Ramkrishna’s email exchanges during the Sebi-ordered audit revealed that an unidentified individual who Ramkrishna said was a formless enigmatic Yogi living in the Himalayas supervised Subramanian’s contentious selection and subsequent elevation, as well as important decisions.
The CBI jumped into action after the Sebi report, which indicated suspected abuse of power by the then top brass of the NSE, authorities said. The CBI had been investigating the co-location scandal against a Delhi-based stock broker since 2018.
The bureau broadened its investigation and questioned Ramkrishna, Narain, and Subramanian in connection with the scheme.
The central inquiry agency arrested stockbroker Sanjay Gupta, the owner, and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt. Ltd, in 2018 for allegedly profiting from early access to the stock market trading system. Unidentified officials of the Sebi and the NSE in Mumbai and other unknown individuals were being investigated by the agency.
“It was claimed that the owner and promoter of the private company conspired with unknown NSE employees to exploit the NSE’s server infrastructure. It was also contended that unidentified officials of the NSE, Mumbai, had given said company unfair access to the co-location facility between 2010 and 2012, allowing it to login first to the Stock Exchange’s exchange server, allowing it to get data before any other broker in the market “In the FIR, the CBI claims.
Edited by- Subbuthai Padma
Published by- Radhika. N
