CBI opposes bail plea by former NSE GOO

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday opposed the bail plea by National Stock Exchange's (NSE) former group operating officer (GOO) Anand Subramanian in the co-location scam case.

Special Public Prosecutor Anupam S Sharma said that the former NSE official's role in the case was part of a 'larger conspiracy' and sought permission from Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain to advance detailed submissions on July 8 when the bail plea of co-accused and former NSE boss Chitra Ramkrishna is also listed.

In its status report filed in response to the bail plea, the agency asserted that economic offences constitute a class apart as they affect the economy and pose a serious threat to the financial health of the country and thus a different approach is required in such cases. Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Subramanian, argued that no purpose would be achieved by the continued incarceration of his client who has spent more than four months in jail in the case which was registered four years ago.

The FIR was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country's largest stock exchange. CBI is probing the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stock brokers. The former GOO was arrested by the CBI on February 24 and was remanded to custodial interrogation. He was sent to judicial custody on March 9. The trial court had rejected Subramanian's bail applications twice on May 12 and March 24.

The senior lawyer said neither Subramanian is named in the FIR nor is connected with the allegations in it and the probe against him concerning his alleged improper appointment was over. He contended that an "incomplete charge sheet" was filed by the agency in the case "just to scuttle his right" of mandatory bail in case of non-filing of the charge sheet.

The investigating agency, in the status report, said that the investigation has established that co-accused Chitra Ramkrishna abused her official position at NSE to illegally appoint the petitioner as Chief Strategic Advisor and also arbitrarily and disproportionately hiked his compensation and re-designated him as GOO without requisite approvals.

"It is a settled principle of law that economic offences constitute a class apart having deep-rooted conspiracies involving huge loss of public funds, affecting the economy of the country as a whole posing serious threat to the financial health of the country and is required to be visited with a different approach in a matter of bail," the status report said.