Geotagged images, hotel booking point to NSE CEO’s aide as ‘yogi’

Geotagged images with location just 13 metres from the Chennai residence of Anand Subramanian, the former Group Operating Officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), a hotel booking the “Himalayan Yogi” for which payments were made Subramanian, email attachments of the “Yogi” modified Subramanian minutes before they were sent, and similarity of phrases used in communications the “Yogi” and Subramanian.
This is some of the evidence that an Ernst & Young investigation has cited to indicate that the mystical “Himalayan Yogi” to whom former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna is alleged to have leaked confidential market information was none other than Subramanian.
On Thursday, Subramanian was arrested the CBI in connection with a 2018 bourse manipulation case. Subramanian’s arrest came in the wake of a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) report which indicted Ramkrishna for appointing Subramanian as NSE Group Operating Officer in contravention of rules, and for sharing confidential NSE information with the “Himalayan Yogi”, who communicated with her through email id rigyajursama@outlook.com.
The SEBI report also mentioned that the E&Y investigation into the email ID strongly indicated that the “Himalayan Yogi” was Subramanian himself.
The CBI, which has got Subramanian’s custody till March 6, is in possession of the E&Y report. It will be verifying these findings with Subramanian in the next few days.

The E&Y findings were based on an analysis of communications between Ramakrishna, Subramanian and the “Himalayan Yogi” between January 2000 and May 2018. Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016, and had appointed Subramanian in the same period.
The strongest indication that the E&Y has cited for the “Himalayan Yogi” being none other than Subramanian is two geotagged images attached in the emails sent using id rigyajursama@outlook.com. The location of these geotagged images was found to be close to Subramanian’s residence in Chennai.
According to the report, 17 emails with attachments were analysed E&Y. Of these attachments, eight were images. “… we observed that 2 images (corresponding to 2 emails) had been geotagged and the location appeared to be close to Subbu’s (Subramanian’s) residential address at Chennai,” the report said.
The location captured in the image was “53 2nd Main Road Teynampet Chennai Tamil Nadu 600018 India”. The latitude and longitude showed “13.03524°, 80.24791°”. The residential address of Subramanian – “No. 2/14, II Main Road, IInd Floor, Seethammal Colony, Extension, Opp Siet College, Teynampet, Chennai 600018 – was found to have the latitude and longitude of “13.036528, 80.253271”.
Separately, E&Y ran the same check on two emails with image attachments sent Subramanian from his official email ID to Ramkrishna.
“The captured location of these photographs was similar to the captured location of the photographs that were sent Rigyajursama. The latitude and longitude of this photograph showed “13.03514, 60.24779°”. Based on public domain information, the dance between the coordinates (latitude and longitude) of photographs sent Subbu (13.03514 °, 80.24778 °”) and Rigyajusrsama (“13.03524 °, 80.24791 °”) was 13 metres,” the report said.
Another evidence cited E&Y is a hotel booking at Umaid Bhavan. On December 1, 2015, rigyajursama@outlook.com sent an email to Ramkrishna (also marked to Subramanian) that Kanchan’s – a reference to Subramanian — holiday had been “approved and booked ME at Umaid Bhavan”.
“As per the bank statement of Subbu, a transaction dated 27 November 2015 amounting to INR 237,984 towards “Umaid Bhawan Palace” was noted,” the report has said.
E&Y also analysed the Skype profile used on Subramanian’s NSE desktop. It was observed that the shared desktop had user profile “sanand” for Subramanian. Review of the desktop data pertaining to windows profile “sanand” revealed that the Skype accounts in the name of “anand.subramanian9” and “siromani.10” were configured in the Skype application database.
E&Y concluded that as the Skype accounts were configured on “sanand” windows profile, only a user having knowledge of “sanand” login credentials could have accessed these skype accounts.
“The Skype account with user profile name “sironmani.10″ was linked to email id rigyajusama@outiook.com and mobile number as +9191675774 12 (this number was assigned to Subbu NSE),” the report said.
E&Y also concluded that the language used in the Skype chats “siromani.10” with Ramkrishna were similar to those used in communication from rigyajursama@outlook.com to Ramkrishna.
“On performing a search on Skype with email id “ngyajursama@outlook.com” we observed two profiles “Rigyajusama Vel” and “Sironmani.10”. Further, on performing a search on Skype with cell phone number *+919167577412” a profile in the name of “Sironmani.10” was observed,” the report has said.

Also in several emails, rigyajursama@outlook.com and Subramanian use similar phrases such as “toe the line” and “Ashirvadham” to Ramkrishna. In some emails – from those outside of NSE to Subramnian – E&Y observed he was referred to as “God” or “Swamy” whose blessings were sought. In two emails, Subramanian indicated that the “Himalayan Yogi” had met two NSE employees. However, these employees said they had met no other person than Subramnian and Ramkrishna in the context of those meetings.
The analysis of nine emails sent rigyajursama@outlook.com that had word/excel documents as attachments revealed that eight of these had been “last modified ” Subramnian or he was the “author”.
“Further, based on the ‘last modified’ date/ time and the corresponding email sent date/ time, we noted that there were five emails that were sent within five minutes of the ‘last modified’ time. (One email was also sent within a minute of the ‘last modified’ time),” the report said.