# Accused directed to appear before court on May 18 and 20; CBI alleges select brokers gained unfair trading access through NSE servers
A special CBI court in Delhi has taken cognisance of a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against 44 accused, including former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Managing Director and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, in the NSE co-location scam case. The accused have been directed to appear before the court on May 18 and May 20, 2026.
According to the supplementary chargesheet, the alleged illegal gains quantified by ISB include:
Tower Research Capital Markets India (formerly Shaastra Research Capital Markets India Pvt Ltd) – ₹182.26 crore
SMC Global Securities – ₹137.33 crore
OPG Securities – ₹132.67 crore
PRB Securities – ₹120.22 crore
PACE Stock Broking Services – ₹114.71 crore
Adroit Financial Services – ₹20.90 crore
CPR Capital Services – ₹24.03 crore
Parwati Capital Markets – ₹14.76 crore
Quadeye Securities – ₹12.66 crore
IKM Investors – ₹17.76 crore
Crosseas Capital Services – ₹13.46 crore
GRD Securities – ₹8.29 crore
Silver Stream Equities – ₹4.33 crore
Share India Securities – ₹2.26 crore
Yug Securities – ₹1.43 crore
Millenium Stock Brokers – ₹1.57 crore
Kredent Brokerage – ₹1.26 crore
Universal Stock Brokers – ₹96 lakh
Advent Stock Broking – ₹84.08 lakh
Estee Advisors – ₹49 lakh
Marwadi Shares and Finance – ₹27 lakh
GKN Securities – ₹19 lakh.
The order was passed by Special Judge M.P. Singh on April 29 after examining a supplementary chargesheet running over 300 pages filed by the CBI. The court observed that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against several stockbrokers, company directors, trading entities and former NSE officials accused of securing unfair and preferential access to NSE’s co-location servers between 2010 and 2014.
According to the CBI, certain brokers repeatedly connected to so-called “secondary servers” of the NSE, which allegedly provided faster access to market data feeds compared to other market participants. The agency claimed that this gave selected firms an unfair speed advantage in high-frequency trading, allowing them to earn illegal gains at the cost of market fairness and integrity.
Former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna has been named as one of the key accused in the chargesheet. The CBI alleged that during her tenure as Joint Managing Director and later Managing Director of NSE, necessary safeguards such as load balancers and randomizers were not implemented in the co-location architecture despite known vulnerabilities. The agency claimed that the absence of these safeguards enabled certain trading members to repeatedly exploit the system.
Former NSE officials Mahesh M. Soparkar and Dev Prasad Singh have also been summoned in the matter. According to the chargesheet, both officials allegedly failed to enforce compliance protocols or take corrective measures despite repeated violations and warnings regarding server access patterns.
The chargesheet further names multiple brokerage houses and trading firms, including SMC Global Securities, PACE Stock Broking Services, Tower Research Capital Markets India, PRB Securities, Quadeye Securities, Marwadi Shares and Finance and Share India Securities. The CBI relied on findings from the Indian School of Business (ISB) to quantify alleged unlawful gains made by several firms through the co-location mechanism.
The accused have been summoned under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act and Information Technology Act, including charges related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and unauthorised access to computer systems.
However, the CBI informed the court that certain allegations investigated during the probe could not be substantiated. These included allegations relating to hawala transactions, illegal overseas trading allegedly linked to OPG Securities and the purported misuse of “Chanakya” software.
The court order mentions that the CBI relied on ISB findings to quantify alleged illegal gains earned by various firms. However, the exact broker-wise penalty amounts and quantified gains for all 44 accused have not been detailed in the available court order summary.
