I have hope the Modi government will sincerely get behind at least some of the economic offenders in the co-location case, says Palak Shah, author of The Market Mafia.
NEW DELHI: The Sunday Guardian caught up with Palak Shah, author of the book The Market Mafia, at a coffee shop. We present excerpts from our freewheeling chat with Shah, who has in his writings shone a microscopic light on the happenings in India’s stock exchanges, markets and SEBI.
Q: Is the NSE co-location scam near its logical end?
A: Logical end? Oh, absolutely. In February 2022, it started when the CBI arrested former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramakrishna. But since then, the pace has slowed. Senior officers of the Home Ministry need to be aware of how the rank and file has been functioning in this case. After nearly seven years of media reporting on the NSE co-location scam, CBI finally sprung into action this year on Ramakrishna’s own admission that a Himalayan Yogi was guiding her in running the world’s largest exchange. There was utter disbelief when I first reported in The Hindu Business Line that Ramakrishna admitted to having known a Himalayan Guru, who according to her could “manifest at will mainly to comment on her curls” and even advise on key appointments at NSE. Even the most jaded business editors were in disbelief about what Ramakrishna told SEBI in what seems an effort to hide the true identity of the forces guiding her in the co-location…
