NEW DELHI: Ravi Narain, Chitra Ramkrishna’s predecessor at NSE (National Stock Exchange of India Limited), was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi on Saturday. He will be called for further questioning, a person aware of the development said.
The CBI had issued a lookout notice against Ravi Narain and others. Ravi Narain has been reportedly living in London on the advice of his doctors.
Narain’s questioning follows that of Chitra Ramkrishna’s in Mumbai and Anand Subramanian’s in Chennai by the CBI sleuths after it came to light, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), that Chitra Ramakrishna, as the chief executive of a top stock exchange, sought the guidance of an unidentified yogi 'living in the Himalayas' to make crucial decisions.
Narain along with Ramkrishna and others are being probed by CBI for their alleged role in the colocation case which involves giving preferential access to certain brokers. The case was registered in 2018 and the latest round of questioning is in light of the facts emerging from SEBI’s order of February 11.
A CBI official couldn’t be immediately reached.
SEBI in its final order against Ramkrishna, Subramanian, among others had noted that Narain did not oppose the serious governance lapses — in Subramanian’s appointment as group chief operating officer of the exchange or Ramkrishna’s alleged sharing of confidential official information with an unknown person — in October and November board meetings at NSE.
“Noticee no. 3 (Narain) in spite of, having knowledge of such grave irregularities and misconduct on the part of Noticee no. 1 (Ramkrishna) and even after knowing that Noticee no. 1 has not applied her independent judgment and was dependent on the guidance of an unknown person while taking important decisions, permitted Noticee no. 1 to exit through resignation and also recorded the appreciation in the Board meeting held on December 02, 2016 and subsequently, in the Board meeting held on December 19, 2016, allowed excess leave encashment of Rs 1.54 crore to Noticee no. 1 over the existing policy without SEBI's approval citing her sterling contribution to the growth of organization,” notes SEBI’s February 11 order.
Apart from CBI , an income tax Mumbai team is questioning Ramkrishna and Subramanian.