NSE colocation scam: Anand Subramanian arrested by CBI in Chennai

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last night arrested former NSE COO,  Anand Subramanian in connection with the 2018 NSE colocation case, according to sources in the know of the matter. Subramanian was an advisor to Chitra Ramkrishna during 2015-16. He joined as Chief Strategic Advisor in April 2013.

He was questioned in Chennai before the agency decided to arrest him, the officials said. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has charged former National Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

Sebi has levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on NSE, Subramanian, former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.

The CBI had recently started interrogating questioned N Murlidaran, Executive Vice Chairman of NSEIT, in Mumbai as part of its probe into irregularities in NSE’s colocation facility.  They have also recently questioned Chitra Ramakrishna, Anand Subramanian and Ravi Narain too.

All the above were questioned in Mumbai and Delhi in connection with new facts that had emerged in the 2018 case where certain private individuals, unknown NSE and SEBI officials were accused of preferential access to NSE's server architecture and misuse of colocation facility.

CBI had recently also visited the SEBI office and collected documents.

Certain brokers are said to have benefitted from preferential access on NSE's trading platform between 2010 and 2015. The controversy first came to light in January 2015 through a whistleblower's mail.