The CBI probe may identify those who were responsible for the disposal of laptops that were handed over to Anand Subramaniam, former operating officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) group and then to Chitra Ramakrishna, managing director of the exchange.
As highlighted in a February 11 order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), during a forensic investigation conducted on the directions of the NSE, only the desktops given to Mr. Subramaniam and Ms. Ramakrishna were copied or checked . Laptops were not available as they were disposed of as e-waste.
Further, the exchanges with unidentified “Himalayan Yogis” through personal email accounts could not be done, the order said.
Earlier this week, the CBI arrested Mr. Subramaniam in connection with an alleged scam in which certain stockbrokers were allowed to log-in through the co-location facility and then back-up the data feed of the exchange in 2010. From 2014 to 2014, preferential access was granted. Server. He is in the custody of the agency.
The CBI is probing the sequence of events related to the scam. As it turns out, Ravi Narayan – already scrutinized once by the agency – was the managing director and chief executive officer of NSE from April 1994 to March 31, 2013. Via a letter dated January 18, 2013, Mr. Subramaniam was offered the position of Chief Strategic Adviser with effect from April 1, 2013. His wife was then working as NSE Regional Head in Chennai.
After Sree Narayan took over as NSE Vice-Chairman, Ms. Ramakrishna became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. It is alleged that he exchanged emails with an unknown person from 2013 to 2016 through his official ID and a personal account. The person on the other end used rigyajursama@outlook.com, an account allegedly created by Mr. Subramaniam.
While the alleged co-location scam was reported to SEBI in January 2015 by a ‘whistleblower’, it is not yet clear when exactly senior NSE officials came to know about it.
The SEBI order said that during the course of investigation into the issue of co-location, the board found some evidence, which showed that Ms Ramakrishna had allegedly shared internal files of NSE with an unidentified person. It sought clarification in May-August 2018. In response, the exchange shared the forensic investigation report, concluding that the “unknown person” was Mr. Subramaniam.
According to the order, which differed from that finding, it was pursuant to SEBI’s letter dated September 15, 2016 that the issue of Mr Subramaniam’s appointment was discussed in the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) meeting of the exchange and then He left the post on 21 October 2016.
In November 2016, the email exchanges between Ms. Ramakrishna and the unidentified person were brought to the notice of the Chairman of the NSE Board and the NRC Chairman by Deloitte and were shared with the Board by the Chairman on November 29, 2016.
However, on 2 December 2016, “despite being aware of such serious irregularities and misconduct on the part of Ms. Ramakrishna, she was allowed to resign and no action was taken in this regard. NSE and its Board also immediately He was praised on record while accepting his resignation with effect.
Ms. Ramakrishna joined the exchange as an executive in the early 1990s, while Sree Narayan – who stepped down as NSE’s vice-chairman in 2017 – was one of its co-founders.