ED signals insider trading in NSE phone-tapping case, to share info with SEBI for probe: Report

Former NSE CEO and MD Chitra Ramkrishna

The Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) illegal phone-tapping case points to insider trading, Business Standard reported on September 16 citing people aware of the matter.

According to the federal investigative agency, insider trading happened during the tenure of Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain as managing director and chief executive officer of the index.

Narain, arrested a few days before the chargesheet was filed, had allegedly conspired with iSec in the tapping case from the beginning, the report said.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

ED will soon be sharing the details with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for further inquiry, sources told Business Standard.

The report further said that Narain and Ramkrishna were the “key conspirators” and had assisted iSec Services to generate money to the tune of Rs 24 crore for exchanging crucial information.

The ED filed its prosecution complaint in the case last week.

Last month, a Delhi court dismissed the bail application of Chitra Ramkrishna in the case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of NSE employees.

Chitra Ramkrishna was arrested by the CBI on March 6 in the case registered in May 2018 related to the co-location scam. The ED arrested her on July 14 in the phone tapping case.

Ramkrishna was appointed as a Joint MD in 2009 and remained in the position till March 31, 2013. She got elevated as MD and CEO on April 1, 2013.

It was during this period that co-location facility was started by NSE, the CBI has alleged. In the co-location facility offered by NSE, brokers could place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets. It is alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the co-location facility to make windfall profits.