The Congress has attacked the government questioning the silence of the Finance Minister on the issue of an alleged ghost baba giving directions to Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO and MD of the NSE.

"The NSE is India's largest stock exchange with a combined market capitalisation of close to $4 trillion (Rs 303 lakh crore), and was guided by a BABA residing in the Himalayas. BABA was appointing KMP's (Key Managerial Personnel), fixing salary and increments of executives of the NSE. Not only this, BABA was also deciding and appointing Public Interest Directors. Operating Margin of NSE was at 70 per cent (which is abnormal)," the Congress said.

Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO and MD of the NSE
Chitra Ramkrishna, the former CEO and MD of the NSE.IANS

Ramkrishna was ousted from NSE in 2016 for her role in the co-location and algo trading scam and abuse of power in the appointment of COO.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "The probe found that Ramkrishna ran NSE with impunity. No one from the senior management, board, or the promoters, which include big government institutions and banks, ever objected to her ways. Instead, Ramkrishna was given Rs 44 crore as pending dues and salary when she left NSE."

Nirmala Sitharaman
DIPR J&K

Vallabh questioned the silence of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister on India's biggest financial scam of all time. "Why an IP address of emails sent by BABA can't be traced till now? The entire world is laughing at us that a country known as the Tech powerhouse of the world can't trace a BABA who is sending emails from an IP Address," he said.

IPO and past scams

The party asked who all had invested in NSE in the last 7.5 years, complete details of the holding, price of acquisition, and date of investment should be made public. The NSE is planning for an IPO and immediately after an IPO, value of investment made in the last 7.5 years will increase by 10 times.

"What was SEBI doing from 2016 on Chitra Ramakrishna shenanigans when scandalous facts were reported? When SEBI is not having any expertise on search and seizure, why the case was not transferred to the CBI, SFIO, ED and IT for investigation in the last 6 years. Who is stopping SEBI from doing the same?" he asked.

The party asked since 2015 when co-location and algo trading scam was reported, what action was initiated by the Finance Ministry and SEBI against the NSE and alleged that instead of investigating co-location and algo trading scam on its own, asked NSE to undertake a forensic audit.