Former Mumbai police commissioner appears before ED in NSE co-location case

In a latest development in connection with the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) co-location scam, the Enforcement Directorate is recording the statement of 1986 batch IPS official and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey at its Delhi-based headquarters.

Pandey was on July 3 asked to get his statement recorded before the ED team. He has now joined the probe.

Pandey is very close to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The ED’s case is on the basis of the CBI’s case.

In April, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed its first chargesheet in the matter against Chitra Ramkrishna, the ex-CEO of NSE and Anand Subramanian, the ex-Group Operating Officer of the NSE.

Subramanian was arrested by the CBI on February 24 while Ramkrishna was placed under arrest on March 6.

The federal probe agency is probing the matter since May 2018 but it has not found any concrete evidence to identify the mysterious ‘Himalayan Yogi’ with whom the classified information was shared by Ramkrishna.

However, the CBI had told a Delhi court that Anand Subramanian was the ‘Himalayan Yogi’ who allegedly influenced the decisions of Chitra Ramkrishna.

Recently, the SEBI had imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, 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.

Subramanian was made the Chief Strategic Advisor of NSE. He served at this post between 2013 and 2015 before being made Group Operations Officer and Advisor to the MD between 2015 and 2016, despite having no exposure to the capital market.

Previously working as a mid-level manager in Balmer and Lawrie, he had seen his salary increased from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1.68 crore annually, and then to Rs 4.21 crore.

Subramanian quit NSE in October 2016 and Ramkrishna in December 2016. The CBI swung into action in the case in 2018 and since then they are probing the matter.