CBI arrests Sanjay Gupta in NSE co-location case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detained Sanjay Gupta, the Managing Director of brokerage firm OPG Securities, in connection with the NSE co-location issue.

Sanjay Gupta of a Delhi-based trading firm was listed as one of the main benefactors of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) co-location scandal. In connection with the suspected co-location fraud, the CBI conducted searches against brokers at more than ten sites throughout the nation last month.

In Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gandhinagar, Noida, and Gurugram, searches were carried out.

The CBI detained former NSE MD Chitra Ramkrishna and NSE Group operational officer Anand Subranian in the NSE case.

In April, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Chitra Ramkrishna and Anand Subramanian. The CBI discovers in its investigations that brokers are being chosen as co-location facilities in the NSE’s trading system, through which they acquired “rack space” for their servers.

According to the first information report (FIR) issued by the investigative agency, “these dealers immediately got access to the exchange’s data stream.”

The CBI stated in the NSE co-Location case that the inquiry found that accused Chitra Ramakrishna re-designated the role of accused Anand Subramanian as Group Operating Officer and Advisor to MD on April 1, 2015, without informing the NRC or the board.

The CBI is investigating the suspected unauthorised transmission of information from market exchange computer servers to stockbrokers.
Previously, the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) sanctioned the NSE and its previous CEOs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narayan, as well as two other employees, for failures in senior-level recruiting.

The market regulator SEBI found that the NSE and its senior executives breached securities contract regulations when Anand Subramaniam was appointed as group operating officer and advisor to the managing director. Chitra Ramkrishna was the NSE’s MD and CEO from April 2013 until December 2016.