Read Time: 06 minutes
NSE MD Chitra Ramkrishna is accused of cheating NSE and its employees between 2009 and 2017. It has been alleged that for the purpose of tapping, iSEC Services Pvt Ltd was engaged in the illegal interception of phone calls of NSE employees.
The bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh of the Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Managing Director and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, in connection with the money laundering case related to the NSE phone tapping case.
While granting bail to Ramkrishna the single-judge bench ordered, "For the aforesaid reasons, the application is allowed and the applicant is granted bail on the following terms and conditions."
It is to be noted that on November 18, 2022, the single-judge bench had reserved the order on the bail plea.
The bail application was filed by Ramkrishna in a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees. It has been alleged that Ramkrishna cheated NSE and its employees between 2009 and 2017 for the purpose of tapping, iSEC Services Pvt Ltd was engaged in the illegal interception of phone calls of NSE employees. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has alleged that iSEC was paid huge sums of money for this purpose.
Earlier, Advocate Zoheb Hossain appearing for ED had opposed the bail and contended that several employees of NSE have corroborated that Ramkrishna used to identify numbers and the same has also been accepted by her. Hossain had further argued that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act allows the court to grant bail to the accused only in certain cases which include women, but the same is not a thumb rule.
Senior Advocate Rebecca John appearing for Ramkrishna had submitted that the current Managing Director is on bail on the ground that his wife has stage III cancer, whereas, Ramkrishna has been in jail for the last 3 months in this case.
John, for Ramakrishna, had argued, "As far as I'm (Ramkrishna) concerned, the scheduled offense is 420... and 72, even at this stage, for these offenses one need not have a locus standi. The person reporting the matter under 420 should be the one aggrieved by the offence".
"After going through all the contracts and agreements for the installation of the Monitoring System, to say that NSE was induced would be a complete fallacy in the facts and circumstances of this case," John had contented.
Notably, on December 21, 2022, Special Judge Sunena Sharma of the Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Ramkrishna in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case pertaining to the illegal interception of phone calls of NSE employees. The Judge had noted, "all the offences other than predicate offences of the present FIR are bailable."
On July 14, 2022, the ED arrested Ramkrishna who had previously been arrested by the CBI in connection with the alleged NSE co-location scam.
A copy of the detailed order is awaited.
Case Title: Chitra Ramkrishna v. Directorate of Enforcement
Statue: The Code of Criminal Procedure
Please Login or Register
