NSE co-location case: Delhi court dismisses bail pleas of Chitra Ramkrishna, Anand Subramanian

A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the bail applications of the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) former boss Chitra Ramkrishna and group operating officer Anand Subramanian in the co-location case.

Denying the relief, Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said there was no sufficient ground to grant them bail. The court reserved its order after hearing arguments from Arshdeep Singh, an advocate of the accused, as well as the prosecution.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had opposed their bail applications saying they could influence the witnesses and tamper with the evidence. It said the nature and gravity of the offence were “quite severe and had far-reaching repercussions on the financial stability”.

An FIR, in this case, 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 stock brokers.

Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) penalised the NSE, Ramakrishna, Ravi Narain, and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.

Narain was NSE’s managing director and CEO from April 1994 to March 2013, while

Ramkrishna was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

The CBI has also alleged that the NSE and its top executives violated securities contract norms relating to the appointment of Anand Subramaniam as the group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.