Delhi Court Sends NSE ex-MD Chitra Ramkrishna To 14-Day Judicial Custody

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal ordered that Ramakrishna be physically produced before the court next on March 28.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna | File Image

New Delhi: Former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court on Monday in connection with the co-location scam case, reported news agency PTI.

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal ordered that Ramakrishna be physically produced before the court next on March 28.

Ramkrishna was produced in the court by Central Bureau of Investigation following expiry of her 7-day custody where the investigation agency urged the court to remand her to judicial custody. 

The probe agency had arrested Ramkrishna on March 6, a day after her anticipatory bail application was dismissed by the court.

The former MD was recently questioned by the CBI in connection with the matter while the Income Tax (I-T) department had earlier raided various premises linked to Ramkrishna in Mumbai and Chennai. 

The arrest was made in the case related to the co-location scam, the FIR for which was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country's largest stock exchange.

The investigating agency is looking into the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stock brokers.

The co-location facility by NSE offered brokers to place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets. Later it was alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the co-location facility to make windfall profits.

Ramkrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials were earlier penalised by the Securities Exchange Board of India for lapses in recruitment at the senior level. Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 1994 till March 2013, while Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

Sebi observed that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.