The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday arrested the former Managing Director of the National Stock Exchange, Chitra Ramkrishna, in the co-location case, NDTV reported. A special CBI court on Saturday had rejected anticipatory bail for her.

Before Ramkrishna, the CBI had already arrested Anand Subramanian, the former group operation officer of NSE who had served as her advisor.

The case pertains to allegations of preferential access to the National Stock Exchange’s algorithmic trading platform. Ramkrishna was the chief executive officer and managing director of the exchange group from April 2013 to December 2016.

After a Securities and Exchange Board of India order dated February 11, Ramkrishna and Subramanian were in the news as SEBI had charged her with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as advisor, and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD, the Hindustan Times reported.

SEBI levied a fine of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna, Rs 2 crore each on NSE, Subramanian and the stock exchange CEO Ravi Narain. It also levied a fine of Rs 6 lakh on the chief regulatory officer and compliance officer of NSE, VR Narasimhan.

The CBI had launched an investigation into the matter in 2018, and after the February 11 SEBI order, it arrested Subramanian.

Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal, on Sunday, observed that SEBI had been too kind to the accused, NDTV reported.

Ramkrishna’s argument was that a Himalayan spiritual guru had steered her into appointing Subramanian, the Hindustan Times reported. On February 13, SEBI had said Ramakrishna also shared confidential information about the National Stock Exchange, including its business plan, financial results and performance appraisals of employees, with the ascetic.

Also read: CBI court turns down anticipatory bail plea of Chitra Ramkrishna in NSE co-location case