Co-location scam: Former NSE CEO Ravi Narain arrested by ED in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested former National Stock Exchange (NSE) chairman Ravi Narain in a money laundering case linked to a co-location scam, according to officials.

The term 'co-location' refers to a setup in which the broker's computer is located in the same area as the stock exchange's serve. It is alleged that preferential access was granted to certain brokers by NSE officials and undue gains were made out. For this purpose, OPG Securities, one of the accused in the First Information Report (FIR), had connected to the secondary POP server on 670 trading days in the "Futures and Options" segment from 2010 to 2015.

Ravi Narain was the MD and CEO of the NSE from April 1994 till March 2013. Among others, the CBI FIR also names Chitra Ramkrishna who was the MD and CEO of the stock exchange from April 2013 to December 2016.

Last week, a Delhi Court dismissed the bail plea of Chitra Ramkrishna in a money laundering case related to the alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of NSE employees. During the hearing, the federal agency opposed the plea, saying that the probe was ongoing in the matter and she was directly or indirectly indulging in the crime.

The ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta informed the court that from 2009 to 2017, Narain, Ramkrishna, Executive Vice President Ravi Varanasi and Head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur and others conspired to cheat NSE and its employees and for the said purpose, they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd for the illegal interception of the company's phone calls of employees in the guise of Periodic Study of Cyber vulnerabilities of NSE.

In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against Narain along with Ramkrishna, former Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey and others in the co-location scam on instructions from the Home Ministry.

Image: PTI