New Delhi: Capital market regulator Sebi has sanctioned a total of 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former leaders Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in the ‘dark fiber’ case. The regulator has imposed a fine of Rs 7 crore on NSE and Rs 5 crore each on Ramkrishna and Narain.
In addition, a fine of Rs 5 crore has been imposed on Subramanian Anand. Furthermore, Sebi has fined Rs 6 crore on Way2Wealth Brokers, Rs 5 crore on GKN Securities and Rs 3 crore on Sampark Infotainment. They have been asked to pay the total amount of the fine within 45 days, according to a Sebi order passed Tuesday.
The case concerns the alleged differential access given to certain brokerage houses in the form of ‘dark fibre’ at NSE, to connect through the colocation facilities before other members. A dark fiber or unlit fiber, in reference to network connectivity, refers to an already laid but unused or passive optical fiber, which is not connected to active electronics/equipment and through which no other data flows, and which is available for use in fiber optic communications .
Sebi initiated an investigation into the transactions of the various entities for the period 2009 to 2016 to investigate the issue of NSE providing connectivity to certain stock brokers in a way that could be detrimental to investors or the securities market. “W2W (Way2Wealth) and GKN, along with the employees of NSE and Sampark, have made significant profits thanks to the unfair latency advantage available with them,” Sebi said in the 186-page order.
Others who have been punished by Sebi are Nagendra Kumar SRVS, Deviprasad Singh and MR Shashibhushan, Prashanth D’souza, Om Prakash Gupta, Sonali Gupta, Rahul Gupta, Netaji Patil, Rima Srivastava, Parshant Mittal, Mohit Mutreja.
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