2018 NSE manipulation case: In order against bail, a Dylan refrain: money doesn’t talk… it swears

Spelling out the reasons for denying bail, the court said that since the duo had held a pole position at the NSE, their chances of tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses cannot be ruled out.

While commenting on the country’s leading stock exchange, the judge said the financial world, including Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), “are waiting with bated breath for the NSE to redeem itself, so that they can fly to this country for investment in droves, which is at present, a brilliant destination for investment.”

“With regard to affairs of NSE at the relevant time, it would not be out of place to observe herein that there comes a time in a lifetime of an institution, where it finds itself at crossroads, then it should take a path which is a right path to restore its glory, rather than burying the skeletons, which may later turn into Frankenstein monsters,” court said.

The 2018 case pertains to charges of preferential access to the trading system to some brokers through the co-location facility, where brokers can buy “rack space” for their servers at NSE, early login and “dark fibre”, which can allow a trader split-second faster access to the data feed of the exchange. Even a split-second edge is considered capable of bringing huge gains to a trader.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India , several key decisions taken by Ramkrishna during her tenure as NSE’s MD and CEO from 2013 to 2016, including Subramanian’s appointment, were guided by an unidentified yogi “who may be largely dwelling in the Himalayan Ranges”. Ramkrishna is alleged to have shared confidential information about the bourse with the “Himalayan Yogi”.

The CBI has told the court the “Himalayan Yogi” was none but Subramanian himself.