MUMBAI: The CBI, which arrested Chitra Ramkrishna, former MD & CEO of NSE on March 6, has recently questioned Ajay Shah, board member of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), besides focusing on the alleged role of one Infotech Financials and brokers such as OPG Securities in the colocation scam between 2009 and 2013.
Shah was reportedly questioned by CBI on Sunday and will be called in again, said a source privy to the development. A CBI official and Ajay Shah were not immediately available for comment.
The federal investigative agency has alleged that Chitra had facilitated the passing on of NSE’s "confidential" trading data to Shah and Infotech Financials, knowing fully well that the latter provided algorithmic software, christened Chanakya, to brokers on NSE and that there was an inherent conflict of interest as one of the directors of Infotech Financials is the wife of Suprabhat Lala, SVP, NSE, besides being Shah's sister-in-law.
Brokers like OPG used this algorithmic software while allegedly manipulating the server architecture in NSE's colocation facilities to gain undue advantage over other brokers. The architecture was such that tick by tick (TBT) price feeds were disseminated sequentially to brokers in the NSE's colo facilities.
However, OPG allegedly colluded with the NSE data centre to be among the first three to access the TBT server and accessed the secondary server of the exchange where the low load ensured it received information seconds before other brokers.
Passing on of trading data
The investigative agency alleged Chitra facilitated the passing on of NSE's "confidential" trading data to Shah & Infotech Financials, knowing the latter provided algorithmic software to brokers on NSE