Himalayan Yogi as elusive as Himalayan Yeti: Delhi Court denies bail to ex-NSE official Anand Subramaniam

Noting that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was in the process of unveiling the true face of a “Himalayan Yogi”, which was “as elusive as the anecdotal Himalayan Yeti”, a Special CBI Court dismissed the bail plea of former National Stock Exchange (NSE) official Anand Subramaniam in the co-location scam case [Anand Subramanian v. CBI]..Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal held that Subramaniam had also failed the triple test at the stage of bail. “There are strong chances that he may influence the relevant witnesses or tamper with the evidence, since the investigations are under progress and the charge sheet is yet to be filed, more so as it has already been alleged by the investigating agency that he has deleted number of emails, which were accessed during the investigation. As a resultant, the accused fails in this triple test at this stage.”.The case stems from a February 11 order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) which found that former NSE head Chitra Ramakrishna indulged in financial misdeeds relating to fixation and frequent revision of compensation of Anand Subramanian in a disproportionate manner, in cahoots with whom she claimed to be a 'Siddha Purusha'.Ramkrishna’s bizarre claim of having been guided by a Siddha Purusha/Yogi in the Himalayas in making her professional decisions did not find favour with the SEBI, which had barred her from associating with any market infrastructure institution or any intermediary registered with the regulator for a period of three years.CBI submitted that the unknown person or the "Himalayan Yogi" was none else but Subramanian. It, however, added that the investigation was still on and the final picture would emerge in the chargesheet..Subramanian, CBI alleged, while performing the public duty to protect the interest of common investors, indulged in criminal conspiracy with other co-accused and caused huge advantage to various trading members/brokers and thus committed a serious economic offence..“Investigating agency is in the process of removing the secret veil to show to the Court the true face of this Himalayan Yogi, who is as elusive as anecdotal Himalayan Yeti. Further the prosecution at this stage of investigation is stated to be working on disjoint scattered dots, from which it has to conjure a final picture in the shape of a charge sheet. The investigations which are at the initial stage will crystallise into concrete form only after filing of the charge sheet,” the order underlined.Subramaniam’s counsel argued no criminality could be attributed to him, as he played no role in the daily affairs of NSE and was only an employee and not the decision maker. He added that the SEBI had given him a clean chit saying that he was not involved in co-location matters directly or indirectly, and was only taking care of regular operations of the exchange on the regulatory side of things.The Court, however, opined that main duty of the SEBI was to monitor and regulate the stock markets and protects the interests of the investors by enforcing certain rules and regulations.It, thus, pointed out that SEBI had no powers to determine the criminality of the accused in offences other those falling under the SEBI Act. "Though some times, there may be some overlapping, as observed earlier while deciding the anticipatory bail application of co-accused Chitra Ramkrishna, although it is a completely different matter that all this while the SEBI has looked other way with regard to launching criminal proceedings against the present accused as well as other accused persons involved in the co-location scam, despite being the market watch dog,” noted the Court..Advocates Arshdeep Singh, Vishnu Mohan, Aakashi Lodha and Aditya represented Subramaniam.Public Prosecutor VK Pathak appeared for the CBI..[Read Order]