|
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday turned down an appeal from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking to overturn a lower court's decision to grant bail to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former managing director of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The ruling was delivered by Justice Madhu Jain.
The matter stems from accusations that phone calls belonging to NSE staff were unlawfully intercepted over an eight-year period, spanning 2009 to 2017. Investigators allege that Ramkrishna acted in coordination with three other senior figures at the exchange - former CEO Ravi Narain, Executive Vice-President Ravi Varanasi, and Mahesh Haldipur, who headed the premises department. The CBI's case holds that this group hired an outside firm, iSEC Services, to carry out the surveillance, disguising the operation as a routine assessment of the exchange's vulnerability to cyber threats. Ramkrishna was initially released on bail by the trial court back in December 2022. Dissatisfied with that outcome, the CBI took the matter to the Delhi High Court in an effort to have the bail order reversed. Previously, the Delhi HC had dismissed a petition on July 9, 2026, filed by Ramkrishna challenging the constitutional validity of the definitions of "public duty" and "public servant" under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act), holding that the NSE performs functions of public importance and its top executive cannot be divorced from those functions. A Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja held that the NSE discharges a public duty and that Ramkrishna, as its MD and CEO during the relevant period, cannot be wholly separated from the functions performed by the exchange in which the public at large has a significant interest. The Bench also rejected Ramkrishna's challenge to the sanction granted for her prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "We have rejected your submission on the sanction order. We do not find any merit in the present petition. The same, along with applications, is accordingly dismissed," the Court observed while pronouncing the order. Ramkrishna had approached the High Court contending that the definitions of "public duty" and "public servant" under the Prevention of Corruption Act were unconstitutional and overly broad, arguing that they improperly brought officials of private bodies such as the NSE within the ambit of the anti-corruption law. She had also questioned the validity of the prosecution sanction granted against her. The High Court, however, declined to accept these contentions, effectively clearing the way for the criminal proceedings against her to continue. The case arises out of the CBI's investigation into the alleged irregularities at the National Stock Exchange, including the co-location matter. The CBI has alleged that Ramkrishna abused her official position during her tenure as the head of the country's largest stock exchange. The Enforcement Directorate is also investigating the matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on the CBI case. (ANI)
|
