NEW DELHI: An examination by Sebi found that NSE and its board were aware of grave irregularities and misconduct on the part of the then MD & CEO Chitra Ramkrishna on the appointment of Anand Subramanian as group chief operating officer of the exchange and adviser to MD but did not record it in the minutes of the meeting, citing confidentiality and sensitive information.
The 190-page report of Sebi on the case linked to the appointment of Subramanian and redesignation as “group chief operating officer” at NSE and sharing of internal confidential information of the bourse with an unknown person by Ramkrishna, also pointed to lapses on the part of the board to inform Sebi about irregularities. Ramkrishna’s tenure at the top bourse was between April 2013 to December 2016. NSE submitted the report on irregularities only after repeated reminders by Sebi.
“Thus, Noticee No. 2 (NSE Ltd) and its board were aware of the exchange of confidential information by Noticee No. 1 (Chitra Ramkrishna) with an unknown person having email id rigyajursama@outlook. com in its meeting held on November 29, 2016. However, Noticee No. 2 (NSE Ltd) and its board had taken a conscious decision to not to report the matter to Sebi and keep the matter under wraps,” according to the report by Sebi whole-time member Ananta Barua.
The report said despite knowledge about irregularities committed by Ramkrishna in the appointment of Subramanian and despite “having committed such bizarre misconduct as reflected from her email correspondence with a fictitious email address”, the board allowed her to exit without taking any action. Ramkrishna resigned with effect from December 2, 2016.
