Former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain arrested by ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ravi Narain, the former top boss of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in a case related to alleged illegal tapping of the phones of employees of the bourse.

Sources in the directorate confirmed the arrest had taken place earlier today of the former managing director and chief executive officer of India's largest stock exchange, a position he held from 1994 to 2013.

Sources added that Narain is also being investigated in the probe regarding alleged preferential access provided to some stock market brokers.

The arrest marks a major turning point in the ongoing probe in the NSE case, also popularly known as the 'co-location' scam.

According to sources, the alleged unfair practises in the NSE occurred between 2010 and 2015.
The CBI has also been probing Narain and Chitra Ramakrishna, the company's Deputy CEO at the time. She succeeded Ravi Narain and headed the NSE till December 2016.

Narain is expected to be produced before a special court on Wednesday for custody.

Earlier this July, the ED had registered and Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR)  against former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and Narain and Ramakrishna for the illegal phone taps of employees from 2009 to 2017.

The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation based on the FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In this case, the probe agency had registered a case against New Delhi-based iSEC Services Private Limited Ltd, its then officials and directors, including Santosh Pandey, Anand Narayan, Armaan Pandey, Manish Mittal, Naman Chaturvedi (then Sr Information Security Analyst), including former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, along with NSE’s former chiefs Ravi Narain, Chitra Ramakrishna, Ravi Varanasi (then Executive Vice President), Mahesh Haldipur (then Head Premises) and unknown others.

The case was lodged after a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in connection with alleged illegal interception of telephones of NSE employees carried out by its top management in collusion with the accused private company from 2009-2017.

"It was alleged that from 2009 to 2017, the accused and a private company conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees. In furtherance of this conspiracy, the private company was allegedly engaged in the guise of conducting ‘Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities' at the NSE. It was further alleged that top officials of NSE issued agreements (Work Orders) in favour of the private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines in contravention of provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act," the CBI had earlier said.

The probe agency has also alleged that no permission for this activity was taken from the competent authority as provided under the Indian Telegraph Act.