Delhi High Court grants bail to ex-NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in money laundering case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), in a money laundering case related to the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees.

A Delhi court had already granted her bail for the phone tapping case.

WHAT IS THE CASE?
Earlier, while denying bail in the money laundering case, a Delhi HC judge had said iSec – a cyber security firm – earned Rs 4.54 crore by illegally tapping the phones of NSE employees. The firm used to illegally intercept phone calls of NSE employees under the guise of a periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities.

Monetary loss was caused to NSE by allowing iSec to gain money out of the illegal activity, the judge said. When the deal was finalised between NSE officials and iSEC, the private firm was represented by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey.

The CBI suspected that former NSE heads, Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain, wanted to find out if the employees were discussing or leaking exchange-related information.

Chitra Ramkrishna was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in March, 2022. She was taken into custody in Delhi after a court rejected her anticipatory bail plea. She served as NSE’s CEO between 2013 and 2016.

The alleged snooping took place from 2009 to 2017, coincidentally the very same period when a co-location scam took place. The snooping machine was later disposed of as e-waste by the NSE.