New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday denied bail to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to the phone tapping of the employees of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) between 2009 and 2017, allegedly on the instructions of NSE’s former CEO and MD Chitra Ramkrishna.
Special judge Sunena Sharma dismissed the bail application of the former police officer. On Tuesday, Pandey was sent to judicial custody till August 16 in connection with the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
He was arrested on July 19.
During the course of the hearing, Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, who represented the petitioner, argued that his client was in fact a ‘whistleblower’ at the NSE.
Opposing the plea, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju and Special Public Prosecutor N.K. Matta, appeared on behalf of the ED, and pointed out that Pandey is an influential person.
Ramkrishna is already in the custody of ED in the same case on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.
The case was lodged by the probe agency on the directions of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Earlier, the CBI had recorded Pandey’s statement at CBI’s Mumbai-based headquarters.
After questioning, he was allowed to leave. The CBI had also conducted raids in Mumbai, Pune and in several other parts of the country in connection with the case.
“Pandey ran iSec Securities Pvt Ltd. It has been alleged that Ramkrishna used this firm to tap the phones of NSE’s employees. The phone calls made by NSE employees between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. were tapped and recorded by iSec Securities. It has been alleged that Pandey helped in tapping the phone calls illegally,” sources said.
(IANS)
