"Money doesn't talk, it swears:" Why Delhi Court invoked Bob Dylan to refuse bail to ex-NSE head Chitra Ramkrishna

“Money doesn't talk, it swears,” wrote legendary singer Bob Dylan and these lines were reproduced in the order of the Delhi Court, which denied bail to former National Stock Exchange (NSE) head Chitra Ramkrishna [Chitra Ramkrishna, Anand Subramaniam v. CBI]..These lines, according to Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal, meant “money not only has influence, but it has great influence, even a perverse influence on people.” The 42-page order, which mentions the 1964 song featuring these lines, had on July 12 also rejected the bail of former NSE employee Anand Subramanian. Subramanian is accused of criminal conspiracy with other co-accused for allegedly causing huge advantage to various trading members/brokers..Bob Dylan and a private club.The judge observed that Subramanian ran NSE’s affairs akin to that of a private club.“It appears that accused A-1 prima facie seems to have been running the affairs of NSE akin to that of a private club; singer writer, Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan once said 'money doesn't talk, it swears', which is a song of, 1964 song album “It's Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding”, means that money not only has influence, but it has great influence, even a perverse influence on people (sic),” it stated..The “present scam” in its view could impact the investment scenario in the country in relation to foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who are always looking for fair, transparent and clean stock exchange to trade with.The present case was stated to have shaken the financial conscious of investors, whether retail, institutional or otherwise, and the situation required mending in order to restore confidence of public at large and the financial world including the FIIs, who were waiting with “bated breath” for the NSE to redeem itself and fly to India in “droves” for investment..The order, therefore, highlighted,“With regard to affairs of NSE at the relevant time, it would not be out of place to observe herein that there comes a time in a lifetime of an institution, where it finds itself at crossroads, then it should take a path which is a right path to restore its glory, rather than burying the skeletons, which may later turn into Frankenstein monsters.”.Allegations and arguments.Ramkrishna, the former NSE managing director (MD), is accused of financial misdeeds relating to fixation and frequent revision of Subramanian’s compensation in a disproportionate manner, in cahoots with someone whom she claimed to be a “Siddha Purusha”.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged that Ramkrishna being the MD had the bandwidth to determine the salary of any consultant and such emoluments were within such bandwidth on the basis the experience Subramanian brought to the table..The other allegation against Ramkrishna was that she was in touch through e-mails with a Himalayan Yogi who the CBI later claimed to be none other than Subramanian..These were contested arguing that the CBI’s case pertained to negligence in administration of NSE which in the best case scenario was a civil wrong and not a criminal offence. Her counsel further submitted that no specific role was attributed to her by the investigating agency..The agency's bone of contention was that a software “Chanakya” developed by a co-accused Ajay Shah was based on the data illegally provided by NSE officials and sold to selected brokers who, in turn, benefited by exploiting the “tick-by-tick” server architecture with the software. Chitra was stated to have no connection with these allegations..Subramanian, it was argued, left NSE in 2016 and, therefore, there was no question of influencing witnesses or tampering with the evidence. “Merely because be was the CEO between 2013-2016 is baseless to falsely implicate him in the present case,” submitted his counsel.Both accused, therefore, sought bail..Apart from Senior Advocate N Hariharan, advocates Shivam Batra, Rony Oommen John, Akhil Ranganathan, Arshdeep Singh, Punya Rekha Angara, Prateek Bhalla, Priya S and Subir Sarkar, represented Ramkrishna.Advocates Arshdeep Singh, Aakashi Lodha and Aditya Chopra appeared for Anand Subramanian..[Read Order]