Court notice to CBI on Chitra Ramkrishna's bail plea in NSE co-location case

The application, filed on Friday, claimed that Ramkrishna was not required for further interrogation and that no purpose will be served by keeping her in custody. The application also said that the accused was ready to follow any condition imposed by the court.

New Delhi: Delhi's Rose Avenue Court has sought CBI's response within two weeks on the bail plea of former managing director and chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in connection with the NSE co-location case. Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal issued notice to the agency and directed it to file its response to her bail application by April 8. The application, filed on Friday, claimed that Ramkrishna was not required for further interrogation and that no purpose will be served by keeping her in custody.

The application also said that the accused was ready to follow any condition imposed by the court. The CBI arrested Ramkrishna on Sunday after her anticipatory bail application was dismissed by the court earlier. The court had on Thursday dismissed the bail application of NSE's former group operating officer (GOO) Anand Subramanian in the case.

The CBI had recently questioned Ramkrishna in the matter. The Income Tax (IT) Department earlier raided various premises linked to her in Mumbai and Chennai. Ramkrishna has also been on the radar of the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Recently the CBI court had sent Anand Subramanian, former Group Operating Officer and advisor to Ramkrishna, to CBI custody.

He was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with the NSE case. 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 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) penalised the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former CEOs Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level. Narain was the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange from April 1994 till March 2013, while Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

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