NSE co-location case: Former MD Chitra Ramkrishna arrested by CBI

The NSE co-location case stems from allegations of unfair, preferential access to certain entities in 2012-14.  

The Central Bureau of Investigation late Sunday evening arrested former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chief Executive Chitra Ramkrishna, in connection to the co-location scam case. She is accused of grave lapses at India’s largest stock market including sharing confidential information with an individual she dubbed a “Himalayan yogi”.

Ramkrishna was arrested in Delhi and taken for medical checkup, according to officials, and was later lodged in lockup at the CBI headquarters, reported news agency PTI.

“Ramkrishna has been arrested following questioning and will be produced in a competent court on Monday,” a CBI official said. Ramkrishna had earlier been questioned by the agency last month along with Subramanain and former NSE CEO Ravi Narain.

The arrest came just a day after a Delhi Court dismissed her request for a pre-arrest bail plea and pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI for inaction and being "lackadaisical" in the probe against her over the last four years.

The Court had observed that the former NSE CEO had “introduced a non-existing person to mislead the investigative agency which may also prima facie show her connivance in the matter”. The agency will confront Ramkrishna with her ex advisor Anand Subramanian who is already in the custody of CBI, said people in the know.

The CBI had grilled Ramkrishna for three days in February and carried out searches at her residence on 24th and 25th of that month, officials said, adding that she was not giving proper responses. The central probe agency had also used services of a senior psychologist of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory who also questioned her, they said.

The NSE co-location case stems from allegations of unfair, preferential access to certain entities in 2012-14. 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.