NSE co-location scam: CBI registers case against Chitral Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain & Sanjay Pandey

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, NSE's former MD Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain besides numerous others in the NSE's co-location case yesterday.

According to an official press release, M/s iSEC Securities Private Limited, in collusion with NSE's top management, indulged in an alleged illegal interception of telephones of NSE employees between 2009-2017.

The IT company was allegedly engaged in the guise of conducting a 'Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities' at NSE.

While no consent was sought from the employees, the said company provided all the call transcripts to top officials of NSE.

The said IT company had been floated by Sanjay Pandey with some of his family members being directors at the time of the alleged scam.

This CBI case comes days after Sanjay Pandey was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate and his statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) found 18 entities, including former National Stock Exchange chief executive officer Chitra Ramakrishna, NSE COO 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 slapping 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.

The CBI has conducted searches at 18 premises of the accused including at Mumbai, Pune, Kota, Lucknow and Delhi.