ED arrests ex-NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna

New Delhi, July 14

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former managing director of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in an alleged case of money laundering and illegal phone-tapping to snoop on employees.

Illegal phone tapping case

• The ED has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in alleged illegal phone tapping case
• The CBI had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of the NSE, had roped in a company founded by Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their calls

After allowing the arrest, a special court in Delhi allowed the ED four-day custodial interrogation of Ramkrishna.

She was produced in the court from the Tihar Central Jail, where she is lodged after being arrested in the case by the CBI, on a warrant issued on a plea filed by the ED. The ED arrested Ramkrishna on the ground of non-cooperation in the probe and asked the court for her nine-day custodial interrogation. The court allowed four.

According to the ED, between 2009 to 2017, former NSE CEO Ravi Narain, Ramkrishna, executive vice-president Ravi Varanasi, head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur and others conspired to cheat the NSE and its employees. A company called iSec Services Pvt Ltd was engaged for illegal interception of phone calls of employees of the NSE in the guise of studying “cyber vulnerabilities”. iSec was represented by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey. The firm illegally intercepted calls of its employees by installing an illegal machine without seeking the requisite permission from the competent authority as mandated under law.