CBI, ED & Income Tax Department investigating irregularities in NSE co-location case: MoS Finance

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, MoS Finance said SEBI, after investigation into the matter involving NSE and other entities, has passed requisite orders

PGurus Newsdesk

April 6, 2022

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, MoS Finance said SEBI, after investigation into the matter involving NSE and other entities, has passed requisite orders

Flaws in NSE co-location case being probed by various agencies: Govt

With regards to the NSE co-location case, the Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary mentioned on Tuesday that the earnings tax division, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are investigating the case associated with irregularities in co-location facility offered by NSE.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested NSE’s former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna. She has been remanded to judicial custody until April 11.

The arrest pertaining to the co-location case follows an FIR that was registered in May 2018, amid recent revelations about irregularities in the nation’s largest inventory trade.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Minister mentioned the market regulator SEBI, after an investigation into the matter involving NSE and different entities, has handed requisite orders.

“CBI, Enforcement Directorate, and Income Tax Department are investigating the case related to irregularities in respect of co-location facility provided by NSE and their investigations are still going on,” he mentioned.

To a query on whether or not additional measures are to be adopted to strengthen the inventory exchanges within the mild of the NSE case, the Minister mentioned assessment of governance norms in Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) is a steady course of and the identical is carried out commonly as per the altering dynamics of the securities market.

“Some of the key measures undertaken by the SEBI are strengthening of governance norms across MIIs and making code of conduct applicable to the Stock Exchanges, Clearing Corporations and Depositories for prevention of fraud or market abuse,” he mentioned.

In February this year, the SEBI imposed a financial penalty on NSE in addition to Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, and two different officers for lapses in recruitment for the senior degree. Narain was at the helm of affairs at NSE from April 1994 until March 2013, whereas Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the inventory trade from April 2013 to December 2016.

SEBI levied a fine of Rs.3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs.2 crore each on NSE, Subramanian, and former MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs.6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer. Further, Ramkrishna and Subramanian have been restrained from associating with any market infrastructure institution or any intermediary registered with Sebi for three years, while the same for Narain is two years. Also, SEBI has directed NSE to forfeit the excess leave encashment of Rs.1.54 crore and the deferred bonus of Rs.2.83 crore, of Ramkrishna, which was retained by the exchange, and deposit the same to its Investor Protection Fund Trust within six days. In addition, SEBI has barred NSE from launching any new product for six months.

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