The CBI officials on Friday arrested former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Anand Subramanian in connection with a 2018 case of alleged irregularities linked to NSE.
According to the CBI, Subramanian is the mysterious "Himalayan yogi" who allegedly influenced the decisions of former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna.
Subramanian was revealed to be the yogi through an email id, the CBI claims. The agency said it had evidence that Subramanian created the mail id rigyajursama@outlook.com.
Chitra Ramakrishna sent confidential information related to the NSE from her mail id rchitra@icloud.com to rigyajursama@outlook.com between 2013 and 2016, CBI sources further said.
Ramkrishnan had initially appointed Subramanian as her advisor who was later elevated as Group Operating Officer (GOO) with a fat pay cheque of Rs 4.21 crore. Subramanian's controversial appointment and later elevation, besides crucial decisions, were guided by an unidentified person who Ramkrishna claimed was a formless mysterious yogi dwelling in the Himalayas.
Earlier this week, the CBI had questioned Subramanian on multiple occasions in Chennai. Recently, the CBI officials also visited the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) office in Mumbai and collected certain case related documents.
"We have arrested Anand Subramanian in the co-location case and will produce him before the concerned court to seek his CBI custody," said a CBI official from Delhi.
The agency sources claimed that Subramanian would be asked about how a private company was allowed to abuse the server of NSE and who are others from the NSE that are involved in the case.
Last week, the CBI officials had grilled former CEO of the NSE Ravi Narain in Delhi and had also questioned Ramkrishna.
On May 28, 2018, the CBI had registered a case criminal conspiracy, attempt to give and receive bribe, misuse of official position and destroying evidences against the owner and promoter of a New Delhi-based private company, unknown officials of the SEBI and the NSE, Mumbai and other unknown persons.
According to the CBI, it was alleged that the owner and promoter of the said private company abused the server architecture of the NSE in conspiracy with unknown officials of the NSE. It was also alleged that unknown officials of the NSE, Mumbai, had provided unfair access to the said company using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2014 that enabled it to log in first to the exchange server of the stock exchange, helping it get the data before any other broker in the market.
The CBI produced Subramanian in the court, and he was remanded in CBI custody till March 6.
