IT Raid At Ex-NSE Chief Premises Who Allegedly Followed Instructions Of A Himalayan Yogi

The Income Tax (IT) Department raided premises linked to Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director and chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The raids started early morning on Thursday and are currently underway in Mumbai and Chennai at the premises linked to Chitra Ramakrishna.

The income tax department started the search after credible information on tax evasion.

BCCL

Chitra Ramkrishna was managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

This comes days after a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) investigation revealed some unusual activities in NSE under her watch.

Mysterious yogi

The most shocking was that she was running the exchange at the directions of a mysterious yogi, who she has never met in person, and communicated only through email. The market regulator SEBI called it "bizarre misconduct" and a "glaring breach" of regulations.

According to her this spiritual guru is a "siddha-purusha" or "paramhansa" who did not have a physical persona and could materialize at his will.

AP

The spiritual guru, who Ramkrishna claimed was dwelling in Himalayan ranges, guided her on personal and professional matters for 20 years.

He also asked her to appoint Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to MD.

On the direction of her guru, Chitra also gave "frequent, arbitrary and disproportionate" increase in compensation to Subramanian when there was no evidence of any performance evaluation being done for him and nor was there any evidence to satisfy the rating of A+ given to him for giving such high increment.

His annual compensation increased from Rs 1.68 crore to Rs 2.01 crore in April 2014 and again his compensation went up to Rs 3.33 crore in April 2015. In addition, he was re-designated as Group Operating Officer (GOO) and Advisor to MD. Further, in April 2016, his compensation zoomed to Rs 4.21 crore.

AP

Apart from this, Chitra also shared certain internal confidential information including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario, financial results with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.

What the SEBI report said

The 190-page report by SEBI also rejected Chitra's claim that the yogi did not have a physical persona and mentioned her own emails stating the contrary.

Based on the e-mail correspondences between the "unknown person" and Ramkrishna and statement before Sebi that the "unknown person" and Ramkrishna have met several times during the year 2015.

She refused to reveal the identity of the unknown person and has sought to claim that the unknown person is a spiritual force, the regulator noted.

"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.

Ramkrishna, who was the managing director and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016, referred the Himalayan yogi as "Sironmani".

In an e-mail to Ramkrishna on February 18, 2015 the unknown person mentioned, "Today you are looking Awesome. You must learn different ways to platt your hair which will make your looks interesting and appealing!! Just a free advice, I know you will grab this. Keep March mid a little free."

Reuters

In another email to the NSE's former boss on February 17, 2015, the Himalayan yogi wrote, "keep bags ready I am planning a travel to Seychelles next month, will try if you can come with me, before Kanchan (Subramanian) goes to London with Kaanchana and Barghava and you to New Zealand with two children.

"HK is a preferred transit or Singapore for onward journey. In case you need help pi let me know Seshu will do the needful. If you know swimming then we could enjoy a sea bath in Seychelles and rest in the beach. I am asking my tour operator to connect with Kanchan for all of our tickets," as per the email.

In another email on September 16, 2015, the spiritual guru asked her about a song: "Did you hear that Makara Kundala song I sent? You must hear the resonance of that iterations. I am happy to see cheer, on your face and absolutely from your heart. I did rejoice the time yesterday with you. These small things you did for yourself make you feel younger and energetic."

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