Court refuses VIP treatment to Chitra, allows prayer books

New Delhi: A CBI court here on Monday refused to give VIP treatment to Chitra Ramkrishna, the ex MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in connection with the NSE co-location case.

"Every Person is the same. She can't be a VIP prisoner because of what she had been. Rules cannot be changed", observed Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal.

However, the court permitted her to carry four books including a copy of Hanuman Chalisa and Bhagwad Gita for prayers.

Ramkrishna was produced before the special court after the expiry of her custodial remand. The court remanded her to 14-day judicial custody. She will be lodged at Tihar Jail.

The CBI had on March 6 arrested Chitra Ramkrishna, accused of grave lapses at India's largest stock market including sharing confidential information with an individual. She was produced before the court on March 7 after her anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the court a day earlier.

Anand Subramanian, the ex Group Operating Officer, was also arrested by the CBI. He was interrogated at length during the custodial period. He is also currently in judicial custody.

The federal probe agency is probing the matter since May 2018 but they haven't found any concrete evidence to identify mysterious Himalayan Yogi with whom the classified information was shared by Ramkrishna.

Recently, the SEBI had imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore on her, following the market regulator finding that she allegedly shared vital inputs about the NSE with the yogi. "Information regarding organisational structure, dividend scenario, financial results, human resource policies and related issues, response to regulator, etc, were shared by her with the yogi," said the source.

Between 2014 and 2016 she sent emails at rigyajursama@outlook.com. On April 1, 2013, Ramkrishna became the CEO and MD of NSE. She brought Subramanian to NSE as her advisor in 2013.