BREAKING: Delhi High Court grants bail to former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in money laundering case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Chief Executive Officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in a money laundering case registered against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the NSE phone-tapping case. .Justice Jasmeet Singh granted bail to Ramkrishna after having reserved orders in the matter on November 15. .It is alleged that the phones of NSE employees were illegally tapped through an agency named M/s ISEC. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that illegal tapping of MTNL phones was contrary to the Telegraph Act. For this purpose, ₹4.54 crore was paid, which becomes proceeds of crime, it was contended.Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey was earlier granted bail in the same case. .Ramkrishna had argued that she had no connection with brokers, and as per the investigationm none of them had been arrested.Senior Advocate Rebecca John had appeared for Ramkrishna in the matter and stated that the allegations against the applicant do not fall within the framework of the scheduled offences, and hence, the rigors of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will not be applicable. She had also said that the petitioner, being a woman, falls within the proviso to Section 45(1) of the PMLA. .In a detailed order, Justice Singh noted that in the present case there was no complaint from NSE or any employee of the NSE that Ramkrishna cheated themThe court said that Ramkrishna was always acting on behalf of NSE and representing the stock exchange, therefore, it is wrong to allege that she decided or fraudulently induced NSE to enter into an agreement with the ISEC.“In view of the above, prima facie the ingredients of the scheduled offences under IPC viz., Section 120B read with section 420 IPC are not made out against the Applicant,” the court said..With regard to the provision of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, the bench said that the accused is not a public servant and NSE is not a public authority.The judge said that the ED has failed to show how she obtained for herself or for any other person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage within the meaning of section 13 of PC Act.“There is no evidence placed on record to prove corruption or abuse of position by the Applicant. The consideration received by M/s ISEC is pursuant to a contract entered into with NSE and work orders issued with the approval of Mr. Ravi Narain, the Managing Director. Thus, the ingredients of section 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) PC Act are not made out against the Applicant. Hence, scheduled offence under section 13 PC Act is not established against the Applicant.”.The bench further held that in the present case there is no allegation that Ramkrishna has derives or obtained any property or proceeds of crime.Justice Singh concluded that prima facie there are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant is not guilty of the offence and she is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. He added that the ED has been granted opportunity to oppose the plea therefore the twin conditions stand satisfied.The court finally ordered Ramkrishna to be released on bail after she furnished a person bond of ₹1 lakh and a surety of the same amount..Apart from this case, Ramkrishna is also facing cases by the CBI and ED for the allegations that she was involved in financial misdeeds relating to fixation and frequent revision of compensation of another former NSE employee Anand Subramanian in a disproportionate manner. She is alleged to have done this in cahoots with someone whom she claimed to be a “Siddha Purusha”.The investigating agencies had argued that this "Siddha Purusha" is Subramanian himself.The other allegation against Ramkrishna was that she in touch through e-mails with the Himalayan Yogi who the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later claimed to be none other than Subramanian..Senior Advocate Rebecca John along with advocates Rony John, Shivam Batra, Akhil Ranganathan, Subir Sarkar, Ankit Bhushan, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Luthra, Piyush Swami and Anuj Dubey appeared for Chitra Ramkrishna. ED was represented through advocates Zoheb Hossain, Vivek Gurnani and Siddharth Sharma. .[Read Order]