On Saturday, an anticipatory bail application filed by the former CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was rejected by a Delhi court. A day later, CBI arrested the former top NSE executive in a 2018 case of bourse manipulation. This was the second big arrest in the case. Earlier, the probe agency had arrested former NSE group operating officer Anand Subramanian.
Now, becoming the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange is no mean achievement. So, Chitra Ramakrishna’s story is a proper story of her rise and fall. Let’s trace it.
Chitra Ramakrishna’s rise to glory
Chitra Ramakrishna’s rise to the top started in the 1990s. Having started her career in the project finance division of IDBI in 1985, Ramakrishna rose quickly.
Both Ramakrishna and her predecessor Ravi Narain were hand-picked from IDBI by its then Chairman S S Nadkarni. Nadkarni himself is an illustrious name in India’s regulatory sector and had even served as the SEBI chairman.
Chitra Ramakrishna’s stint at the NSE
Ramakrishna worked for SEBI for a brief time, before joining the NSE. The National Stock Exchange was set up in 1991. And R H Patil, Narain and Ramakrishna comprised its core team.
She was even a part of the core five-member team selected by the government in the early 90s to create a screen-based pan-Indian stock exchange that would enable clean and transparent trading. At that time, the BSE was hit by the Harshad Mehta scam and therefore the government was keen on ensuring clean trading.
A Chartered Accountant by training, Ramakrishna was made the MD and the CEO of NSE for a period of five years starting April 1, 2013.
Corruption charges come up
Things were going fine for Chitra Ramakrishna. The NSE turned into the largest stock exchange in the country, and she was credited with having played a key role in its spectacular rise.
But in December 2016, Chitra Ramakrishna stepped down as the Managing Director and CEO of the Exchange. It was presumed that she had differences with some Board members. However, corruption charges followed soon.
In April 2019, SEBI asked NSE to disgorge an amount of Rs 624.89 crore with interest thereon calculated at 12 per cent per annum from several persons including Chitra Ramakrishna and Narain. The NSE was asked to disgorge this amount to the Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF) in a co-location case, in which some brokers had gained unauthorised access to the NSE system.
In August 2020, SEBI also imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on the NSE for changing the terms of Ramakrishna’s remuneration and giving her an enhanced parting sum when she quit, without SEBI permission.
On February 11, 2022, NSE, Ramakrishna and Narain, and others were penalised again by the SEBI. This time for the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group operating officer and advisor to MD in violation of securities contract rules.
The faceless ‘Siddha Purusha/Yogi’ who was running the NSE
A shocking detail came out with SEBI’s February 11, 2022, order. It pointed out that Ramakrishna, the former MD and CEO of the NSE was guided by a faceless “Siddha Purusha/Yogi”, “a Paramahansa who may be largely dwelling in the Himalayan ranges”, for 20 years. The market regulator stated, “It is the unknown person who was running the NSE, and Ramakrishna was merely a puppet in his hands.”
Chitra Ramakrishna too has reportedly claimed that she took instructions through email from an unidentified ‘Siddha Purush’ (Yogi) dwelling somewhere in the Himalayas.
Who is this Siddha Purush? Special Judge Sanjay Aggarwal, who declined Ramakrishna’s anticipatory, bail plea stated, “At this stage it couldn’t be said prima facie that the role of the present accused was not under scanner. It further appears prima facie that the applicant had introduced a non-existing person to mislead the investigating agency, which may also prima facie show her connivance in the matter.”
An Ernst and Young audit report, on the other hand, indicated that the Siddha Purush maybe Anand Subramanian himself. Meanwhile, probe agencies haven’t yet reached any conclusion about the identity of the unknown person.
The identity of the faceless person remains a mystery. However, Chitra Ramakrishna’s story is turning out to be eventful. She rose quickly in India’s stock market circles, but her fall has been just as steep.