The SEBI report claimed, “By August 2015, Subramanian was attending all board meetings of the NSE. In June 2016, he was authorised to form a subsidiary of NSE to set up a stock exchange at the International Financial Services Centre at GIFT City – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project which is being implemented with a lot of fanfare. Soon all the functional heads were reporting to Subramanian who was re-designated as group operating officer and advisor to the MD and CEO.” The investigation holds that several highly placed people at the bourse including Ravi Narain–Ramkrishna’s predecessor– were aware of this mysterious Yogi or Baba and his communications with the NSE boss. Narain was MD of the bourse from April 1994 to March 2013. Later, he became the vice-chairman of NSE and remained in that position till June 2017. They took a “conscious decision… not to report the matter to Sebi and (chose to)…keep the matter under wraps.” The market regulator has imposed a fine of Rs. 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs. 2 crore each on NSE, Ravi Narain and Subramanian, and Rs. 6 lakh on V.R. Narasimhan. Is it too little and too late? Prof Gourav Vallabh, spokesperson of the Congress, posed the following questions on the simmering controversy: • What was SEBI doing from 2016 on Chitra Ramkrishna’s shenanigans when scandalous facts were first reported? • Why was the case not transferred to CBI, SFIO, ED and IT for investigation in the last six years? • Since 2015 when co-location and algo trading scam was reported in NSE, what is the action initiated by Finance Ministry and SEBI against NSE? • Why did Sebi ask NSE to undertake a forensic audit instead of carrying out the investigation itself ? • Why can’t the IP address of this unidentified fraud be traced and disclosed? Vallabh, while addressing the media, claimed that he had details of people who had bought shares of the NSE in the last seven years. The share value, he claimed, would go up hugely the day NSE issues a public offering. The spartan details in the SEBI inquiry report raises more questions than answers. And since neither the Prime Minister nor the Finance Minister is willing to speak up on the issue, shouldn’t the regulator come up with a White Paper?(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)
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