NSE co-location case: Govt looking into lapses, says FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the government is looking into the lapses that had happened at National Stock Exchange (NSE) in connection with the co-location case, which is currently being probed by multiple investigating agencies. The National Stock Exchange, the country's largest bourse, is believed to have rolled out co-location services in 2009-2010.

Speaking during the post Budget outreach press conference in Mumbai, Sitharaman added, "I am going through the details I have before me." She also said that the ministry will call for a press conference very soon, adding, "At this stage this is unfair to say anything."

The Finance Minister's comments come amid an ongoing probe into alleged irregularities by a stock broker at the NSE, the ambit of which was expanded after a recent SEBI report cited ''governance lapses'' at the exchange.

ALSO READ: NSE co-location case: CBI questions ex-group operating officer Anand Subramaniam

Yesterday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former NSE group operating officer Anand Subramanian during the last three days in Chennai about his role at the exchange, how he landed as the group operating officer at the NSE, besides his association with then MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.

A team of CBI officials also visited the SEBI office in Mumbai recently to collect certain documents.

The CBI had last week questioned former NSE CEOs Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with ''fresh facts'' which surfaced in the damning report released by SEBI on February 11.

The market regulator said Ramkrishna was steered by a yogi dwelling in the Himalayan ranges in the appointment of Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and adviser to the managing director (MD).

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and adviser to the MD.

ALSO READ: Chitra Ramkrishna case: CBI meets SEBI officials

SEBI has levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Subramanian, and former NSE MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.

The central probe agency had booked stock broker Sanjay Gupta, owner and promoter of Delhi-based OPG Securities Pvt Ltd, in 2018 for allegedly making gains by getting early access to the stock market, the officials said.

The agency was also probing unidentified officials of SEBI and the NSE, and other unknown persons.

''It was alleged that the owner and promoter of said private company abused the server architecture of NSE in conspiracy with unknown officials of NSE. It was also alleged that unknown officials of NSE, Mumbai had provided unfair access to said company using the co-location facility during the period 2010-2012 that enabled it to login first to the exchange server of the stock exchange that helped to get the data before any other broker in the market,'' the CBI has alleged in the FIR.

Narain was the MD and CEO of the exchange from April 1994 till March 2013. Thereafter, he was appointed as vice-chairman in the non-executive category on the NSE's board from April 2013 and remained so till June 2017.

(With agency inputs)