Delhi court extends Chitra Ramakrishna's ED remand by four days in PMLA case

Former NSE CEO and MD Chitra Ramkrishna

A Delhi court on July 18 extended former NSE CEO and MD Chitra Ramakirshna's remand in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal phone tapping by four days, news agency ANI reported.

Ramakrishna was arrested on July 14 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), after it received nod from a court in the national capital to initiate the probe against her.

The arrest had come hours after the federal agency booked her, along with another former NSE chief Ravi Narain and ex-Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED action came in the aftermath of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on July 7, registering a case against Ramakrishna, Narain and Pandey for allegedly tapping phones of NSE employees between 2009 and 2017.

Ramakrishna headed the National Stock Exchange of India between 2013 and 2016 as its managing director and chief executive officer.

The CBI alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna had roped in a company founded by Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls, news agency PTI had reported.

The alleged irregularities of secret surveillance were detected by the ED, which reported it to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The MHA subsequently asked the CBI to probe the charges, officials told the news agency.

Ramakrishna is, notably, also under the radar of investigation agencies for alleged role in the NSE co-location case. In June, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) found 18 entities, including those linked to her and former NSE group operating officer (GOO) Anand Subramanian, and the NSE, guilty of collusion in the 2015 dark-fibre case.

The capital market regulator imposed a cumulative penalty of Rs 43.8 crore on the 18 entities, with the NSE alone slapped a Rs 7-crore fine. NSE’s Chief Business Development Officer Ravi Varanasi has been fined Rs 5 crore, while Ramakrishna has been handed a penalty of Rs 5 crore.

(With PTI inputs)