New Delhi, Feb 15
The Opposition Congress asked the Union Finance Ministry to prepare a white paper on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) citing the controversy that former CEO and MD of the NSE Chitra Ramkrishna was running the country’s largest stock exchange based on the diktats of an invisible baba.
‘Why case not moved to CBI?’
Congress spokesman Gourav Vallabh told reporters here on Tuesday that when the SEBI does not have any expertise on search and seizure, the case was not transferred to the CBI, SFIO, ED or the Income Tax for investigation in the last 6 years. “Who is stopping SEBI for doing the same? Is this the state of affairs of the largest derivatives exchange in the world? Finance Ministry should come out with a white paper on NSE,’ he said and asked why the forensic report of Ernst & Young is not mentioned in the SEBI report on the matter. “Who is running India’s largest stock exchange?” he asked.
He said Chitra Ramkrishna, former CEO and MD of the NSE that has a combined market capitalisation of close to ₹303 lakh crore, was guided by a baba residing in the Himalayas. “Baba was appointing Key Managerial Personnel, fixing salary and increments of executives of NSE. Not only this, Baba was also deciding and appointing Public Interest Directors,” he said and added that the operating margin of NSE was at 70 per cent, which is abnormal.
He said the probe against Ramkrishna found that she ran the NSE with impunity. “No one from the senior management, board, or the promoters — which include big government institutions and banks — ever objected to her ways. Instead, Ramakrishna was given ₹44 crore as pending dues and salary when she left NSE,” he added.
‘Make public the investment details’
He asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are silent on India’s biggest financial scam. “Why the IP address of emails sent by Baba can’t be traced till now? The entire world is laughing at us that a country known as the tech powerhouse of the world can’t trace a baba who is sending emails from an IP address,” he added.
He said the details of all those who had invested in NSE in the last 7-and-a half 7years, including the holding, price of acquisition and date of investment should be made public. “What was SEBI doing from 2016 on Chitra Ramkrishna shenanigans when scandalous facts were reported? Since 2015, when co-location and algorithmic trading scam was reported in NSE what actions did Finance Ministry and SEBI take against the NSE?” he asked.