I-T search on ex-NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna, accused of sharing data with 'Himalayan guru'
Chitra Ramkrishna has come into the news after it has been revealed that she was steered by a Himalayan yogi in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as NSE's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director when Chirta was the MD.
The income tax department on Thursday conducted searches on Chitra Ramkrishna, the former chief of the National Stock Exchange of India. "The IT officials are at her residence in Mumbai," Mint quoted a person familiar with the matter. Officials said the searches are aimed to check charges of tax evasion and financial irregularities against her and others, news agency PTI reported. Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.
The searches come as a recent Sebi order has said that Ramkrishna when she was at the helm of the affairs of the stock exchange, was steered by a Himalayan yogi in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director.
The Sebi order also 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.
Sebi said the NSE board let Ramkrishna resign without taking any action against her. During the investigation, Chitra Ramkrishna said she was taking guidance from a 'Siddha-purusha' or 'Paramhansa' who had been her spiritual guide for over 20 years. However, the details revealed by the investigation of the Sebi do not confirm this.
Sebi has penalised NSE and its former heads Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain over this appointment issue and barred NSE from launching any new product for a period of six months.
Who is this mysterious Himalayan yogi?
The Sebi order said, "Ramkrishna states that the third person was not Mr Subramanian; (but) the results of the forensic investigation conducted by EY (asked by Sebi and commissioned by NSE) concluded that the person using the email id 'rigyajursama@outlook.com' was Mr Subramanian himself."
On the spiritual guru, Sebi said this guru in question took interest in the hairstyle of Chitra Ramkrishna's hairstyle, shared songs with her and also went on a vacation with her to Seychelles to 'chill'. The investigation revealed that Chitra met this unknown person several times in 2015.
"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.
