You know how they say fact is stranger than fiction? True story! The revelations that have come to light in the past few weeks about Chitra Ramkrishna (NSE CEO) a mysterious Yogi in the Himalayas and one Anand Subramanian are certainly weirder than fiction. It is a story that seems made for OTT – Netflix/ Amazon Prime, here I come!
Chitra Ramkrishna had had a brilliant career and was sometimes referred to as the Queen of the Stock Market. In the late 1980s, she was one of the people who drafted the SEBI legislative framework. She was part of the team that created an automated screen-based trading system for the National Stock Exchange (NSE). From 2013 to 2016, she was the MD and CEO of the NSE. Forbes named her ‘Woman Leader of the Year’ in 2013 and she has many other accomplishments to her credit. Following a trading scam in 2015 that was permitted to happen on her watch, she quit her post as NSE CEO in 2016 just as it became evident that she would be sacked.
In February 2022, years after the end of her stint as NSE CEO, some amazing facts came to light. There were raids on her homes in Chennai and Mumbai for suspected tax fraud. After this, SEBI came out with information that Ramkrishna had been taking advice from some unidentified yogi and following his directions to make professional decisions for some two decades. Apparently, she had never met this yogi who was supposed to be living somewhere in the Himalayas. Reports describe her behaviour as "bizarre misconduct" that was a "glaring breach" of regulations.
Ramkrishna was said to be in the thrall of this yogi, and she shared the stock exchange’s business and financial plans, the agenda of the board, and other sensitive information with said yogi. All this information came to light when SEBI was investigating governance lapses in the NSE; around the time when SEBI imposed a $90 million fine on the NSE and stayed the NSE IPO.
Emails exchanged between the ‘yogi’ and Ramkrishna were discovered; someone she described as a ‘spiritual force’. The ‘yogi’ would also offer her ‘beauty tips’ about how to look younger, change her hairstyle and so on. Executives were hired based on the yogi’s recommendation; promotions and salaries were also decided based on this. According to SEBI, it was this yogi who was actually running the NSE, and Ramkrishna was a mere puppet in his hands.
And this is where the plot thickens – gets lumpy at any rate. On 24 February 2022, the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI arrested Anand Subramanian, former Chief Operating Officer of the NSE.
He was appointed by Ramkrishna and was also given undue promotions upon the advice of the yogi. Subramanian was the beneficiary of many perks he was not entitled to – first-class travel, accommodation on business trips, salary increases etc. He was also permitted to overrule his seniors without consequence. It was well known in the NSE that Ramkrishna and Subramanian shared certain chemistry; both seemed inclined towards orthodox ritual and believed in astrology.
And this is where things get really suspenseful. There is one view that Subramanian was none other than the ‘Yogi’. This is based on Ramkrishna’s preferential treatment of him and also the fact that many of the yogi’s emails (from the address [email protected] ) to her were CC to Subramanian. However, there is another view that the emails could not have been written by Subramanian because his technical and linguistic calibre was not equal to what was seen in the emails.
As of now, there is much conjecture and little certainty about the identity of the yogi. This still remains a mystery – riveting stuff – worth of an OTT series, wouldn’t you say?
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