Delhi High Court has granted bail to former National Stock Exchange (NSE) chairman Chitra Ramakrishna in connection with a money laundering scam, which is related to the case of illegal phone tapping and snooping on NSE employees. The Enforcement Directorate had registered a case against Ramakrishna in the co-location scam.
The court had reserved its order in the matter on November 15. She was arrested by the ED in the present case on July 14 last year, and granted bail in the CBI case in September last year.
Justice Jasmeet Singh granted bail to Ramakrishna. According to Bar and Bench, senior advocate Rebecca John, who appeared for Ramakrishna said that the allegations against her were not within the framework of the scheduled offences. She argued that, in such a case, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act will not be applicable to Ramakrishna.
Ramakrishna had argued that she had no connection with brokers, and as per the investigation none of them have been arrested.
The ED opposed her bail plea and argued that she was the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
The case is the result of Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) findings that Ramakrishna was involved in financial misdeeds, including the frequent revision of compensation of another NSE employee Anand Subramanian in a disproportionate manner. She apparently did so following the orders of an individual she identified as ‘Siddha Purusha’. Further investigation uncovered that the ‘Siddha Purusha’ she spoke of is none other than Subramanian himself.
Subramanian is believed to have indulged in criminal conspiracies with other co-accused and caused huge advantage to various trading members, which is an economic offence.
Ramakrishna was allegedly in touch with a Himalayan yogi through mails, who was later found to be, again, Subramanian.