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Tag: Chitra Ramkrishna

  • NSE phone tapping: Delhi HC grants bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in money laundering case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in the money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees.

    “The application is allowed. The applicant is granted bail,” said Justice Jasmeet Singh.

    The former NSE managing director, who was earlier arrested by the CBI in the alleged NSE co-location scam, was arrested in the present case by the Enforcement Directorate on July 14 last year.

    She was granted bail in the CBI case by the high court in September last year.

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed her bail plea in the present case on grounds that she was the “mastermind” behind the conspiracy.

    The phone tapping case, according to the ED, pertains to a period from 2009 to 2017 when former NSE CEO Ravi Narain, Ramkrishna, Executive Vice-President Ravi Varanasi, and Head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur and others conspired to cheat NSE and its employees and for the purpose, engaged iSEC Services Pvt Ltd for illegal interception of phone calls of employees of the NSE in the guise of doing periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities of the NSE.

    Seeking bail, Ramkrishna had argued that no scheduled offence was made out against her and the allegations also did not fall within the rigours of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act .

    Ramkrishna was appointed as Joint MD NSE in 2009 and remained in the position till March 31, 2013. She got elevated as MD and CEO on April 1, 2013. Her tenure at NSE ended in December 2016.

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in the money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees.

    “The application is allowed. The applicant is granted bail,” said Justice Jasmeet Singh.

    The former NSE managing director, who was earlier arrested by the CBI in the alleged NSE co-location scam, was arrested in the present case by the Enforcement Directorate on July 14 last year.

    She was granted bail in the CBI case by the high court in September last year.

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed her bail plea in the present case on grounds that she was the “mastermind” behind the conspiracy.

    The phone tapping case, according to the ED, pertains to a period from 2009 to 2017 when former NSE CEO Ravi Narain, Ramkrishna, Executive Vice-President Ravi Varanasi, and Head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur and others conspired to cheat NSE and its employees and for the purpose, engaged iSEC Services Pvt Ltd for illegal interception of phone calls of employees of the NSE in the guise of doing periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities of the NSE.

    Seeking bail, Ramkrishna had argued that no scheduled offence was made out against her and the allegations also did not fall within the rigours of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act .

    Ramkrishna was appointed as Joint MD NSE in 2009 and remained in the position till March 31, 2013. She got elevated as MD and CEO on April 1, 2013. Her tenure at NSE ended in December 2016.

  • Company founded by Mumbai ex-top cop violated SEBI orders in NSE brokers’ audit: CBI

    The CBI has alleged that iSec services had conducted audit of two “high risk brokers” — SMC Global Securities Ltd and Shaastra Securities Trading Private Limited — in a fraudulent manner.

  • NSE illegal phone tapping: ED files money laundering case against former Mumbai top cop

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping case of the stock exchange employees, officials said Thursday.

    It also placed Ramkrishna, till now in judicial custody in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) colocation case linked to alleged manipulation of the bourse, under arrest.

    A Delhi court later granted the anti-money laundering probe agency her custody for four days.

    Pandey is understood to have been summoned by the ED to appear before the agency on Friday in Delhi for questioning in the phone tapping case, the officials said.

    The federal probe agency filed the fresh case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a week after the CBI booked them.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of NSE, had roped in a company founded by retired IPS officer Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls.

    The CBI, and now the ED, have named Pandey, his Delhi-based company iSEC Services Pvt.

    Ltd, NSE’s former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective complaints.

    The ED will probe if any proceeds of crime were generated through this alleged illegal act and the accused laundered public funds.

    Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired from service on June 30.

    Before his four-month stint as Mumbai’s commissioner of police, he served as acting Maharashtra director general of police (DGP).

    He was questioned by the ED on July 5 in the alleged NSE colocation scam case in Delhi.

    The ED discovered secret phone surveillance while probing the alleged financial irregularities at the NSE following which it reported it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which asked the CBI to probe the charges, the officials said.

    The CBI had alleged in its complaint that during the period 2009-17, Narain, Ramkrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees for which they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, founded by Pandey in 2001.

    Pandey had incorporated the company after resigning from service but his resignation was not accepted.

    The company allegedly received a payment of Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping which was camouflaged as “Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities” at the NSE, the CBI alleged.

    The company also provided transcripts of the tapped conversations to senior management of the stock market, it had claimed.

    “Top officials of NSE issued agreement and work orders in favour of said private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines, in contravention of provisions under Indian Telegraph Act,” a statement from the CBI said.

    Officials said the interception was stopped in 2019, months after the CBI started probing the NSE colocation scam in 2018, and the machines and other infrastructure used for interception were disposed of as e-waste by the bourse.

    The alleged fraud relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.

    The CBI also conducted raids last week in the phone tapping case and claimed to have recovered original transcripts, raid server, voice samples, two laptops containing evidence related to interception, bills generated for services rendered by iSEC, among others, from the company premises.

    They had said four MTNL lines used by NSE employees having capacity for 120 calls at a time were under the scanner.

    The CBI alleged that no permission for this activity was obtained from the competent authority as provided for under section five of the Indian Telegraph Act.

    “No consent of the employees of NSE was also taken in this matter,” it said.

    The CBI has also listed as accused the then directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd Santosh Pandey, Anand Narayan, Armaan Pandey, Manish Mittal, former Senior Information Security Analyst Naman Chaturvedi and Arun Kumar Singh.

    The company had done the safety audit around the time the colocation scam was alleged to have taken place.

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping case of the stock exchange employees, officials said Thursday.

    It also placed Ramkrishna, till now in judicial custody in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) colocation case linked to alleged manipulation of the bourse, under arrest.

    A Delhi court later granted the anti-money laundering probe agency her custody for four days.

    Pandey is understood to have been summoned by the ED to appear before the agency on Friday in Delhi for questioning in the phone tapping case, the officials said.

    The federal probe agency filed the fresh case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a week after the CBI booked them.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of NSE, had roped in a company founded by retired IPS officer Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls.

    The CBI, and now the ED, have named Pandey, his Delhi-based company iSEC Services Pvt.

    Ltd, NSE’s former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective complaints.

    The ED will probe if any proceeds of crime were generated through this alleged illegal act and the accused laundered public funds.

    Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired from service on June 30.

    Before his four-month stint as Mumbai’s commissioner of police, he served as acting Maharashtra director general of police (DGP).

    He was questioned by the ED on July 5 in the alleged NSE colocation scam case in Delhi.

    The ED discovered secret phone surveillance while probing the alleged financial irregularities at the NSE following which it reported it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which asked the CBI to probe the charges, the officials said.

    The CBI had alleged in its complaint that during the period 2009-17, Narain, Ramkrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees for which they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, founded by Pandey in 2001.

    Pandey had incorporated the company after resigning from service but his resignation was not accepted.

    The company allegedly received a payment of Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping which was camouflaged as “Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities” at the NSE, the CBI alleged.

    The company also provided transcripts of the tapped conversations to senior management of the stock market, it had claimed.

    “Top officials of NSE issued agreement and work orders in favour of said private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines, in contravention of provisions under Indian Telegraph Act,” a statement from the CBI said.

    Officials said the interception was stopped in 2019, months after the CBI started probing the NSE colocation scam in 2018, and the machines and other infrastructure used for interception were disposed of as e-waste by the bourse.

    The alleged fraud relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.

    The CBI also conducted raids last week in the phone tapping case and claimed to have recovered original transcripts, raid server, voice samples, two laptops containing evidence related to interception, bills generated for services rendered by iSEC, among others, from the company premises.

    They had said four MTNL lines used by NSE employees having capacity for 120 calls at a time were under the scanner.

    The CBI alleged that no permission for this activity was obtained from the competent authority as provided for under section five of the Indian Telegraph Act.

    “No consent of the employees of NSE was also taken in this matter,” it said.

    The CBI has also listed as accused the then directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd Santosh Pandey, Anand Narayan, Armaan Pandey, Manish Mittal, former Senior Information Security Analyst Naman Chaturvedi and Arun Kumar Singh.

    The company had done the safety audit around the time the colocation scam was alleged to have taken place.

  • Former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna moves Delhi HC for bail in co-location case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court judge on Wednesday recused himself from hearing the bail plea by former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the co-location case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

    Justice Talwant Singh directed that the matter be listed for hearing on Friday (May 20) before another judge. The trial court had dismissed the bail plea of the former NSE boss on May 12 considering the gravity and magnitude of the allegations and said that no ground for bail was made out at this stage.

    The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers. An FIR, in this case, was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country’s largest stock exchange.

    The CBI had arrested Ramkrishna on March 6, a day after her anticipatory bail application was dismissed by the court. She was remanded to judicial custody on March 14 by the trial court after the expiry of her seven-day CBI custody.

    While denying her bail, the trial court had cited Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan as well as the Frankenstein monster and said that the financial world, including the FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors), are waiting with bated breath for NSE to redeem itself, “so that they can fly to this country for investment in droves, which is at present, a brilliant destination for investment”.

    “It appears that accused A-1 (Ramkrishna) prima facie seems to have been running the affairs of NSE akin to that of a private club; singer writer, Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan once said ‘money doesn’t talk, it swears’, which is a song of, 1964 song album ‘It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding’, means that money not only has influence, but it has great influence, even a perverse influence on people,” Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal had observed.

    Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalised the NSE, Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain, and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

    Narain was NSE’s managing director and CEO from April 1994 to March 2013, while Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

    The CBI has also alleged in the case that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as the group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.

  • NSE co-location case: Delhi court dismisses bail pleas of Chitra Ramkrishna, Anand Subramanian

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the bail applications of the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) former boss Chitra Ramkrishna and group operating officer Anand Subramanian in the co-location case.

    Denying the relief, Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said there was no sufficient ground to grant them bail.

    The court reserved its order after hearing arguments from Arshdeep Singh, advocate of the accused, as as well the prosecution.

    Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had opposed their bail applications saying they could influence the witnesses and tamper with the evidence.

    It said the nature and gravity of the offence was “quite severe and had far-reaching repercussions on the financial stability”.

    An FIR in this case was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country’s largest stock exchange.

    The CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stock brokers.

    Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has penalised the NSE, Ramakrishna, Ravi Narain, and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

    Narain was NSE’s managing director and CEO from April 1994 to March 2013, while Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

    The CBI has also alleged that that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as the group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.

  • Co-location scam: CBI looks into Seychelles trip of Chitra Ramkrishna and Anand Subramanian

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian’s trip to tax havens Seychelles has come under the scanner of the CBI, officials said on Friday, as the agency continues its probe against them in the co-location scam.

    The agency believes that it was not an innocuous leisure trip and that it needs a thorough investigation, they said.

    The CBI has also told the Special Court that Ramkrishna and Subramanian’s trip to Seychelles is being looked into.

    The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on February 11 had charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

    In its report, the SEBI has also mentioned an email conversation of Ramkrishna with the “mysterious Yogi”, suspected to be Subramanian, mentioning about a trip to Seychelles.

    “Unknown person had written to Ramkrishna on February 17, 2015…keep bags ready, I am planning to travel to Seychelles next month, will try if you can come with me…,” it said.

    The agency, meanwhile, is focussing on retrieving the email exchanges between Ramkrishna and [email protected], they said.

    In its statement to Sebi, Ramkrishna had said that the unknown person having email id [email protected] was a ‘Sidha-purusha’ or ‘paramhansa’ who did not have a physical persona and could materialise at will.

    The CBI probe is understood to have indicated that Subramanian had created the email id to communicate with Ramkrishna as the Yogi.

    Most of these email exchanges were destroyed and the computer systems used to send these emails were scrapped after the exit of Ramkrishna in 2016, they said.

    The CBI is likely to approach Microsoft, the service provider, to know if these email exchanges can be retrieved to get a clearer picture, they said.

    The CBI, which was probing the co-location scam since 2018 against a Delhi-based stock broker, swung into action after a Sebi report showed alleged abuse of power by the then top brass of the NSE, the officials said.

    The officials said the investigation is going on in the alleged role of the then senior NSE officials who were looking into the co-location which is understood to have given “unfair advantage and wrongful gain” to certain stock brokers including OPG securities, an accused in the case, at the cost of others.

    The officials said the co-location facility in NSE was a “major policy decision” in which the then MD and CEO and other senior officials would have played a “decisive role”.

    The CBI probe has shown that Ramkrishna was appointed as Joint MD in 2009 and remained in the position till March 31, 2013, with the power of DMD.

    Ramkrishna got elevated as MD and CEO on April 1, 2013 and left the bourse in 2016.

    It was during this period that co-location was started by NSE, the CBI has alleged.

    In the co-location facility offered by NSE, brokers could place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets.

    It is alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the co-location facility to make windfall profits.

    The CBI has also found that Muralidharan Natarajan, the CTO of NSETECH (a subsidiary of NSE), who was responsible for setting up co-location architecture at the NSE was directly reporting to Ramkrishna, officials said.

    On February 25, the CBI had arrested former Subramanian after expanding its probe into the co-location scam in the exchange following “fresh facts” in the Sebi report that referred to a mysterious yogi guiding the actions of Ramkrishna.

    Subramanian was allegedly referred to as the “yogi” in the forensic audit but Sebi in its final report had rejected the claim.

    Ramkrishna, who succeeded former CEO Ravi Narain in 2013, had appointed Subramanian as her advisor who was later elevated as group operating officer (GOO) at a fat pay cheque of Rs 4.21 crore annually.

  • CBI questions ex-NSE GOO Anand Subramanian over abuse of co-location facility by broker

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has questioned former National Stock Exchange group operating officer Anand Subramanian in connection with its ongoing probe into alleged irregularities by a stock broker, the ambit of which was expanded after a recent SEBI report cited “governance lapses” at the exchange, officials said on Monday.

    The CBI questioned Subramanian during the last three days in Chennai about his role at the exchange, how he landed as the group operating officer at the NSE, besides his association with then MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, they said.

    A team of CBI officials also visited the SEBI office in Mumbai recently to collect certain documents, they added.

    The CBI had last week questioned former NSE CEOs Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with “fresh facts” which surfaced in the damning report released by SEBI on February 11.

    The market regulator said Ramkrishna was steered by a yogi dwelling in the Himalayan ranges in the appointment of Subramanian as the exchange’s group operating officer and adviser to the managing director (MD).

    The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and adviser to the MD.

    SEBI has levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Subramanian, and former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.

    The central probe agency had booked stock broker Sanjay Gupta, owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt Ltd, in 2018 for allegedly making gains by getting early access to the stock market, the officials said.

    The agency was also probing unidentified officials of SEBI and the NSE, and other unknown persons.

    “It was alleged that the owner and promoter of said private company abused the server architecture of NSE in conspiracy with unknown officials of NSE. It was also alleged that unknown officials of NSE, Mumbai had provided unfair access to said company using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2012 that enabled it to login first to the exchange server of the stock exchange that helped to get the data before any other broker in the market,” the CBI has alleged in the FIR.

    Narain was the MD and CEO of the exchange from April 1994 till March 2013. Thereafter, he was appointed as vice-chairman in the non-executive category on the NSE’s board from April 2013 and remained so till June 2017.

  • Income Tax Department raids premises of former NSE MD, CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in Mumbai

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department on Thursday raided premises linked to former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in Mumbai as part of a tax evasion investigation against her and others, official sources said.

    Ramkrishna is in the news after a recent Sebi order said she was steered by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange’s group operating officer and advisor to the managing director (MD).

    Officials said the searches are aimed to check charges of tax evasion and financial irregularities against her and others.

    Apart from this, the order said, Ramkrishna had shared certain internal confidential information, including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario and financial results, with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange’s employees.

    Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.