The Income Tax Department on Thursday, February 17, searched the premises of former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and group operating officer Anand Subramanian in Mumbai as part of a tax evasion investigation against them, official sources said. The searches were carried out to check and gather evidence on the charges of financial irregularities and alleged tax evasion against the two, they said. The premises of Ramkrishna and Subramanian were raided by officials of the Mumbai investigation wing of the Income Tax department early this morning.

Ramkrishna is in the news after a recent SEBI order said she was steered by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director (MD).

Chitra Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of NSE from 2013 to 2016. A spiritual guru, who Ramkrishna claimed was dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, guided her on personal and professional matters for 20 years. This was revealed in an order by market regulator SEBI last Friday against Ramkrishna and others in a matter of governance lapses in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

Apart from this, the order said, Ramkrishna had shared certain internal confidential information, including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario and financial results, with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.

Ramkrishna resigned from the NSE in 2016, and was accused in the co-location and algo trading scam. Ramkrishna has refused to reveal the identity of the unknown person and claimed that the unknown person is a spiritual force, the regulator has noted.

"Without unnecessarily going into the details of each email, it is evident that the unknown person is a physical being and has gone on vacations with the Noticee no. 1 (Ramkrishna) to chill,” SEBI said. As per the order, Chitra had claimed that the yogi is as a spiritual force and their spiritual powers do not require them to have any such physical coordinates and would manifest at will.

One of the glaring omissions in the order was that Anand Subramanian was given a remuneration of Rs 1.38 crore, about nine times what he was making at the time — or Rs 15 lakh — at Balmer Lawrie. He allegedly didn’t have qualifications for such a position, and his remuneration was also revised and Subramanian was promoted. He was also allowed to work only three days a week. 

"Hence, there appears to be a glaring conspiracy of a money making scheme that involves Ramakrishna and Subramanian with the unknown person, by which Ramakrishna would increase the compensation granted to Subramanian and he would then pay the unknown person from such increased compensation. This gives further credence to the allegation that there was an arbitrary and disproportionate increase in compensation granted to Subramanian by Ramakrishna,” the SEBI order said.

In the matter of governance lapses while appointing Subramanian, SEBI has levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on NSE, Subramanian and former MD and CEO Ravi Narain, and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer.

Further, Ramkrishna and Subramanian have been restrained from associating with any market infrastructure institution or any intermediary registered with SEBI for three years, while the same for Narain is two years.

Also, SEBI has directed NSE to forfeit the excess leave encashment of Rs 1.54 crore and the deferred bonus of Rs 2.83 crore, of Ramkrishna, which was retained by the exchange and deposit the same to its Investor Protection Fund Trust within six days. In addition, SEBI has barred NSE from launching any new product for six months.

With inputs from agencies