Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey Arrested In NSE Phone Tapping Case
Former Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey was questioned for seven hours on Tuesday before being arersted.
After more than seven hours of questioning, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested former Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees, PTI reported. The retired 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was questioned for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
The ED has alleged that iSec Services Private Ltd, a Delhi-based company founded by Pandey, illegally intercepted phones of NSE employees.
Pandey is also being probed by CBI over violation of Securities and Exchange Board of India guidelines in conducting NSE's system audit.
The ED had last week arrested former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in the case.
Pandey retired from service on June 30. Before his four-month stint as Mumbai's commissioner of police, Pandey served as the acting Maharashtra director general of police.
The CBI and ED have named Pandey, iSEC Services Pvt. Ltd, NSE's former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective FIRs.
The ED discovered secret phone surveillance while probing the alleged financial irregularities at the NSE. The agency then reported the matter to the Home Ministry, which asked the CBI to probe the charges, PTI reported.
The CBI said during 2009-17, Narain, Ramkrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees for which they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, founded by Pandey in 2001.
The company allegedly received a payment of Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping that was camouflaged as "Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities" at the NSE, the CBI alleged.
The company also provided transcripts of the tapped conversations to senior management of the stock market, the probe agency has claimed.
"Top officials of NSE issued agreement and work orders in favour of said private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines, in contravention of provisions under Indian Telegraph Act," a statement from the CBI said.
CBI said months after it started probing the 2018 NSE co-location scam, the interception was stopped in 2019. The machines and other infrastructure used for interception were disposed of as e-waste.
The alleged fraud relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.
(With inputs from PTI)
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