NSE scam: Chitra Ramkrishna's judicial custody extended till April 11

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) A CBI court on Monday extended the judicial custody of National Stock Exchange's former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, arrested by the probe agency in early March in connection with the NSE co-location case, till April 11.

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal also permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to get Ramkrishna's handwriting specimen on probe-related grounds as the agency stressed need to investigate several digital pieces of evidence.

Earlier, the same judge had issued notice on Ramkrishna's bail application, asking the central agency to respond in the matter within two weeks, and had posted the matter to April 8.

Ramkrishna was arrested earlier this month while Anand Subramanian, the NSE's former Group Operating Officer and her advisor, was arrested in February after questioning.

The CBI probing the NSE fraud has been making efforts to find fresh clues to reach the mysterious 'Himalayan Yogi', with whom the classified information was shared by Ramkrishna. While the forensic report of Ernst & Young (E&Y) says that Subramanian could be the mysterious Yogi, market watchdog SEBI had last month denied this.

The CBI is trying to corroborate the evidence is collected with the questioning of Subramanian.

It is probing the matter since May 2018 but has failed to find any concrete evidence to identify the mysterious Himalayan Yogi.

Recently, the SEBI imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, following the market regulator finding that she allegedly shared vital inputs about the NSE with the 'yogi', including information regarding organisational structure, dividend scenario, financial results, human resource policies and related issues, response to regulator, etc. This was done through emails sent to email id: [email protected].

On April 1, 2013, Ramkrishna became the CEO and MD of NSE. She brought Subramanian to NSE as her advisor in 2013.

Subramanian was made the Chief Strategic Advisor of NSE. He served in this post between 2013 and 2015 before being made Group Operations Officer and Advisor to the MD between 2015 and 2016, despite having no exposure to the capital market. Previously working as a mid-level manager in Balmer and Lawrie, he had seen his salary increase from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1.68 crore annually, and then to Rs 4.21 crore.S ubramanian quit NSE in October 2016 and Ramkrishna in December 2016.