BackNSE phone tapping case: ED arrests former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey
The former cop Sanjay Pandey had appeared before the ED in relation to the functioning and activities of a company called iSec Securities Pvt Ltd
PremiumThe Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a money laundering case involving alleged phone tapping and snooping of employees of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The alleged fraud against Pandey relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.
On Tuesday, Sanjay Pandey had appeared for the second consecutive day before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi on Tuesday for questioning. The retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer is being questioned by the federal probe agency in this case.
Pandey had also met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday, according to officials. The purpose or solution of the 15 minute long meeting between the former Mumbai Police Commissioner and the CM is still unknown.
CBI had said on Monday that it questioned Pandey and another former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in connection with the ₹100 crore extortion allegations against former minister Anil Deshmukh.
The former Mumbai Police top cop is facing two ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIRs - illegal interception of phones of NSE employees by iSec Services Private Ltd, a company founded by him, and violation of Securities and Exchange Board of India guidelines in conducting NSE's system audit.
This firm was one of the firms tasked with conducting a security audit of NSE between 2010-2015, when the exchange systems were compromised to give benefit to few brokers.
Established in 2001, iSec Services Pvt Ltd was one the IT companies that conducted security audits at NSE from 2010 to 2015, when the co-location scam supposedly took place. The CBI has been investigating the company because it believed that the security audit firm should have been able to detect breaches in the NSE system when the scam occurred.
The former IPS officer had incorporated the company after resigning from service but his resignation was not accepted.
The company allegedly received a payment of ₹4.45 crore for illegal tapping which 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, it had 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.
The CBI also conducted raids in the phone tapping case and claimed to have recovered original transcripts, raid server, voice samples, two laptops containing evidence related to interception, bills generated for services rendered by iSEC, among others, from the company premises.
They had said four MTNL lines used by NSE employees having capacity for 120 calls at a time were under the scanner.
The CBI alleged that no permission for this activity was obtained from the competent authority as provided for under Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act.
"No consent of the employees of NSE was also taken in this matter," it said.
Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired from service on June 30. Before his four-month stint as Mumbai's commissioner of police, he served as the acting Maharashtra director general of police.
On Monday, the Delhi Court had extended the remand of former National Stock Exchange (NSE) MD and CEO Chitra Ramakrishna's remand for 4 days. 4 days remand of Chitra Ramakrishna, former MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange, in a money laundering case involving alleged phone tapping and snooping of employees of the stock exchange.
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