Chitra Ramkrishna delegated powers to Anand Subramanian making him privy to confidential information, says CBI

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In the National Stock Exchange co-location case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated that investigation has revealed that in pursuance to criminal conspiracy, the accused Chitra Ramakrishna (former CEO and MD, NSE), by misusing her official position, re-designated the post of accused Anand Subramanian as Group Operating Officer and Advisor to MD from April 1, 2015, without bringing the same to the notice of NRC and the board.

It has also been revealed that substantial powers akin to MD were delegated to the accused Anand Subramanian, making him privy to important and confidential information related to the working of NSE, says CBI in before a special court of Delhi.

CBI, in its reply filed before Court against Subramanian's bail, also stated that Anand Subramanian was well connected with Chitra Ramakrishna prior to his engagement as Chief Strategic Advisor at NSE. His wife Sunitha Subramanian also served as the Regional Head of NSE at Chennai from April 2011.

CBI's reply further stated that NSE deals with the financials of the investors and is under the duty to protect the interest of the investor in particular and the public at large. "Various large financial institutions and banks viz State Bank Of India, LIC, GIC, etc hold a stake in NSE," it read.

Meanwhile, CBI has also moved an application in the Court seeking permission for the recording of specimen handwritings of accused Anand Subramanian, who is presently in JC. On that, the Court sought a reply from Subramanian's lawyer and put up the matter for March 23.

CBI Court of Delhi on Friday had reserved the order on bail plea of Anand Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and adviser to former MD of the NSE. He was the first person who was arrested by CBI in the NSE co-location case last month.

CBI, while opposing the bail plea had said that the release of this accused on bail is likely to hamper the collection of evidence. The investigation is on to identity the persons with whom he shared these emails containing sensitive data. Investigation with regard to the foreign visits of Anand Subramanian, its necessity and outcome is underway. Anand Subramanian can influence these witnesses if he is given bail, says CBI.

On Friday, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana who appeared for Arvind Subramanian argued that as far as the allegations contained in the FIR are concerned, the applicant has been "wrongly implicated in the case, since he is not connected in any manner with the allegations so levelled. No offence is made out even from a reading of the FIR."

In fact, the FIR pertains to the applicant's alleged role in the unfair access to co-location facilities to one Sanjay Gupta and his company OPG Security Pvt Ltd. It has been stated that Sanjay Gupta with help from unknown persons, managed the data centre staff of the NSE who passed on information regarding switching on time of NSE exchange servers, which gave him an unfair advantage, submitted Advocate Arshdeep Singh. Advocates Vishnu Mohan and Aakashi Lodha also appeared for Arvind Subramanian in the case.

CBI counsel while opposing the bail plea submitted that 832 GB of data was recovered. "We recovered it from the archive. We have written to Microsoft to give us the complete data. He was not cooperating with us. Even the deleted material and certain emails. Anand is very influential and there is every possibility that he might flee," said the CBI lawyer.

Earlier, CBI submitted that they are seriously looking at all the aspects of the investigation and there is a special team of 30 officials consisting of a senior official to probe the case. "We are also probing the role of SEBI officials in the matter. We have also recently questioned Ravi Narain, former MD of NSE," it read.

The Court recently also sent former managing director and chief executive officer of NSE Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case on CBI remand till March 14, 2022.

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

Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has penalized the NSE and its former CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

The market regulators observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as group operating officer and adviser to the managing director.

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