Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Income Tax (IT) Department on Thursday raided premises linked to Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director (MD) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), who has been accused of sharing confidential information with a spiritual guru.
Sources say that searches were being held in Mumbai and Chennai at premises linked to Chitra Ramakrishna as part of a tax evasion investigation against her. Chitra Ramkrishna was managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.
She has also been on the radar of the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Last week, the SEBI penalised Chitra Ramkrishna, her predecessor at the NSE Ravi Narain, two other NSE officials for lapses in hiring at the senior level.
The market regulator found that the NSE and its top officials violated securities contract rules related to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group operating officer and adviser to the Managing Director.
It is learnt that the 'spiritual guru' of NSE's former chief Chitra Ramkrishna took interest in her hairstyle, shared songs with her and went on a vacation with her to Seychelles to 'chill' out, according to a SEBI order. This was contradictory to Ramkrishna's statement given to markets regulator SEBI, whereby she said her spiritual guru is a 'Siddha-Purusha or 'Paramhansa' who did not have a physical persona and could materialize at his will.
The spiritual guru, who Ramkrishna claimed was dwelling in Himalayan ranges, guided her on personal and professional matters for 20 years. This was revealed in a Sebi's order passed on Friday against Ramkrishna, who was the MD and CEO of NSE, and others in a matter of governance lapses in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as a chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.
Based on the e-mail correspondence between the 'unknown person' and Ramkrishna and the statement before SEBI that the 'unknown person' and Ramkrishna have met several times during the year 2015. She refused to reveal the identity of the unknown person and has sought to claim that the unknown person is a spiritual force, the regulator noted.
