NSE scam: Who is the 'Himalayan yogi' who manipulated Chitra Ramkrishna?

The Income Tax Department on Thursday raided the premises of former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and group operating officer Anand Subramanian in Mumbai and Chennai as part of a tax evasion investigation against them, official sources said.

The searches were aimed at checking and gathering evidence against the two facing charges of financial irregularities and tax evasion after it was suspected that illegal financial gains could have been made by them by sharing confidential data of the exchange with possible third parties, they said.

The premises of Ramkrishna and Subramanian were raided by officials of the Mumbai investigation wing of the Income Tax department early morning.

Who is Chitra Ramkrishna?

Chitra Ramkrishna, once known as “queen of the bourses” is the former chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange, a Mumbai-based bourse that manages stocks and derivatives.

Ramakrishna was the second-highest paid executive in the financial services industry in FY16, before she quit.

A certified chartered accountant, Ramakrishna was appointed joint managing director of NSE in 2009 and promoted to CEO in 2013. Her salary that year was second only to Aditya Puri's, then managing director of HDFC Bank, who took home Rs 9.7 crore, and almost three times that of BSE CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan, who earned Rs 3.3 crore.

But in 2015, things took a turn for the worse for Ramakrishna, after a Singapore-based whistle-blower alleged that a Delhi-based member on the NSE was able to access privileged price information by linking to servers and getting access to the least crowded servers.

This later came to be known as the co-location scam where select traders were allegedly given preferential access to data and trading systems through the co-location facility at the exchange. Ramakrishna resigned from NSE in December 2016 due to personal reasons.

Who is the yogi?

Ramkrishna hit the headlines after a recent Sebi order said she was steered by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director (MD).

According to SEBI, Ramkrishna shared certain internal confidential information, including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario and financial results, with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.

The regulator noted in its order that she refused to reveal the identity of the unknown person and sought to claim that the unknown person is a spiritual force.

According to reports, the yogi and Subramanian were the same person whom Ramkrishna consulted, using a private email service.

According to reports from ET, NSE consulted experts in human psychology who believed that Subramanian created another identity (Rigyajursama) to make her perform her duties as per his whims.

What action has SEBI taken?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India charged Ramkrishna and others for alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

SEBI levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Subramanian, former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.

SEBI also directed NSE to forfeit the excess leave encashment of Rs 1.54 crore and the deferred bonus of Rs 2.83 crore, of Ramkrishna. In addition, SEBI barred NSE from launching any new product for six months.

(With agency inputs)

Published on: Friday, February 18, 2022, 10:34 AM IST