Fact-Check: Did A ‘Yogi’ Run NSE? Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, T V Mohandas Pai Spar, Check What Govt Says

New Delhi: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and T V Mohandas Pai sparred on Twitter after market regulator SEBI, while imposing fine on Chitra Ramkrishna, former MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange, said she was guided by a faceless “yogi” for over 20 years to run NSE.

“Shocking lack of governance in NSE that was held up as a world-class SE. Were there no checks n balances?” Mazumdar-Shaw, the Biocon Executive Chairperson, tweeted.

Replying to her tweet, Pai, Aarin Capital Partners Chairman and former NSE board member, wrote, “No yogi ran NSE! Pl stop spreading such falsehoods! Do you really believe that a very sophisticated technology based SE, one of the largest in the world, was run successfully by some vague Yogi? You are doing a disservice to all those great employees who worked 24×7 @NSEIndia.”

To this, Mazumdar-Shaw said: “So, do we junk the SEBI report? The employees of NSE were innocent. But if indeed Chitra Ramakrishna did connive with an outsider, it’s dangerously outrageous.”

SEBI REPORT

The SEBI order said that the “yogi” also influenced the appointment of Anand Subramanian as Group Operating Officer and advisor to the MD.

“The unknown person according to Ramkrishna was a spiritual force that could manifest itself anywhere it wanted and did not have any physical or locational co-ordinates and largely dwelt in the Himalayan ranges,” the Sebi order said.

Subramanian was allegedly an accomplice of the “yogi” who influenced Ramkrishna’s decisions. On the yogi’s advice, Subramanian was redesignated as ‘Group Operating Officer and Advisor to MD’ and his compensation increased substantially each year, the order added.

“His cost to company was not less than Rs 5 crore. Chitra is totally dependent on Subramanian and does not do anything without his consultation,” the SEBI order said.

Ramkrishna, who quit in December 2016, also shared internal confidential information about the NSE with the ‘yogi’ by addressing her correspondence to an email id rigyajursama@outlook.com between 2014 and 2016, the order said.

SEBI has penalised the NSE and its former MDs and CEOs, Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, and others for violating securities contract rules in a case related to the appointment of Subramanian as Group Operating Officer and advisor to the MD. The regulator imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on the NSE, Narain and Subramanian and Rs 6 lakh on V R Narasimhan, who was the Chief Regulatory Officer and Chief Compliance Officer.

WHAT CENTRE SAYS

The Centre is likely to order a probe into charges that Ramkrishna shared confidential information about NSE with a mysterious “yogi”.

Government sources rubbished the ‘cock and bull’ “yogi” story put forward by Ramkrishna and said emails recovered during investigation prima facie establish a criminal conduct on her part, and an investigation would be ordered to find out the identity of the unknown person as the matter concerns financial security of the country.

They said that an investigation was also needed to find out why the NSE disposed of her laptop hurriedly without examining it and who took the decision not to preserve even her desktop for a future inquiry.

Sources said the role of NSE would also be investigated to find out why Ramkrishna was allowed to resign and leave honourably and why no action was taken against her by the NSE when its board was fully aware of the emails exchanged between her and the unknown person.