Amid a probe into a co-location scam involving the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) top brass, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday, 11 March, told a Delhi court that the bourse’s former group operating officer Anand Subramanian was impersonating a 'Himalayan yogi' to influence the decisions of former MD Chitra Ramakrishna.
"He is an influential person. They think that they will hide after impersonating as the Himalayan Yogi, but we have caught them. They can hamper the investigation," the CBI stated in the court, news agency IANS reported.
Special Judge Sanjeev Agarwal, who was hearing a bail application filed by Subramanian, said, “You are the Himalayan Yogi. Living in the high reaches of the Himalayas with divine powers. CBI was in hibernation for four years. They suddenly woke up now. I don’t know why,” reported The Indian Express.
However, the petitioner's counsel denied the charge and said that two inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had not found anything against Subramanian in the case.
The judge reserved his order on Friday and is expected to pronounce the same on 24 March.
Subramanian had been sent to 14-day judicial custody in the case on Wednesday, two days after Ramkrishna was sentenced to a 7-day CBI remand on Monday.
What Is the Case?
The SEBI has penalised the NSE and its former CEOs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain over violations in security contract rules and lapses in the hiring procedure for senior-level appointments.
In its order dated 11 February, the SEBI said that Chitra Ramkrishna, during her tenure as CEO and MD, had allowed her decisions to be swayed by a spiritual force. As a fallout, Anand Subramanian, who had allegedly been an associate of the 'yogi,' had drawn unjustified gains under Ramkrishna's ascendancy.
The former NSE chief has been accused of sharing internal confidential information of the stock exchange, such as the organisational structure, dividend scenario, financial results, human resource policies, etc, with the unknown person through email.
“Ramkrishna stated that the third person was not Mr. Subramanian; (but) the results of the forensic investigation conducted by EY (asked by Sebi and commissioned by NSE) concluded that the person using the email id ‘rigyajursama@outlook.com’ was Mr. Subramanian himself," the SEBI order stated.
A fine of Rs 3 crore has been imposed on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the NSE, Narain, and Subramanian, as well as Rs 6 lakh on VR Narasimhan, who had been serving as the chief regulatory officer and chief compliance officer.
The CBI is probing the case further.
(With inputs from IANS and The Indian Express.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)