NEW DELHI: The Rouse Avenue Court on Friday reserved the order on the bail application of Anand Subramanian, a key suspect, accused in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) co-location scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, opposed the bail plea and informed the court that the former NSE group operating officer (GOO) Anand Subramanian had been impersonating as the "Himalayan Yogi" and influencing the decisions of the former NSE CEO, Chitra Ramkrishna.
"He's influential, Inko lag raha tha yeh Himalyan Yogi banke chupe rahenge but humne inko pakad liya (He thought he will hide behind the identity of Yogi but we caught him)," said the CBI during the one-and-a-half-hour long argument.
Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal reserved the bail plea order for March 24.
According to a report, the CBI prosecutor VK Pathak informed the court that Subramanian was known to Chitra and he influenced her decision making. They visited tax havens like Seychelles and Mauritius. This aspect has to be investigated.
The CBI opposed the bail stating that he is a "flight risk", but the judge remarked that he had not actually fled the country in the past four years.
Subramanian's advocate, Arshdeep Singh told the court that the scam took place between 2010 and 2014 and that the accused joined in 2013. His lawyers also told the court that two SEBI internal enquiries had not found anything against his client in this case.
On this, the judge remarked, "You are the Himalayan Yogi. Living in the high reaches of the Himalayas with divine powers. CBI was in hibernation for four years. They suddenly woke up. I don’t know why." Arshdeep replied that Subramanian is not the Yogi.
The judge on March 8 had pulled up the investigating agency for the slow pace of the investigation.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had unearthed email communication between Chitra Ramakrishna and a "Himalayan Yogi."
Anand was the first to be arrested in connection with the scam, which reportedly runs into thousands of crores, from his residence in Chennai on February 24. The CBI subsequently arrested Chitra Ramakrishna on March 6 for grave lapses at India's largest stock market including sharing confidential information with the "Himalayan Yogi". Another former managing director of NSE Ravi Narain was interrogated by the agency.
The scam dates back to January 2015 when a whistleblower informed SEBI about unfair practices at the NSE, where certain brokers were being given early access to the colocation facility at the stock exchange.
The CBI had filed FIR in the case in 2018.