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What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Wednesday sent former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey to nine days in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody in connection with an illegal phone tapping case.
Pandey was arrested by the ED on Tuesday evening after two days of consecutive questioning.
Seeking 14-day custody of the former Mumbai top cop, the financial probe agency argued in court that Pandey had resigned from service in April 2000.
The ED told the court that there was litigation between 2001-2006 regarding his service. Later, he moved to VRS (Voluntary Retirement Service) in 2007, which he withdrew in October 2008.
It further said that Pandey formed a company iSec Securities Private Limited and incorporated it in 2001.
The ED alleged that when this firm was incorporated Pandey was still in service, even if he was not the director of the company. It also said that Pandey attended the meetings of the company though he was not a director of the company. The ED said that he was indirectly controlling the operations of the company.
The agency argued that the contract came in as a facade. The ED argued before the court that MTNL lines were tapped. The agency alleged that the proceeds of crime, in this case, are to the tune of Rs 4.54 crore.
Meanwhile, Pandey, through his lawyer, informed the court that he was a capable public servant till June 30. He was handling the law and order situation in Mumbai as a police commissioner till then and suddenly after his retirement, two FIRs have been registered against him in just seven days. “And now he has been arrested. His arrest is clear political vendetta,” Pandey’s lawyer informed the court.
Pandey also informed the court that the calls were being recorded for monitoring and analysis purposes. The former cop also argued that his firm was not tapping any live monitoring and had no equipment to tap any calls.
Pandey informed the court that every recording was done by NSE and machines used for this purpose were installed in NSE and they are the ones who tapped the calls.
“All machines were provided by NSE. He did not get any illegal machines or got any machines and was not part of any nexus,” Pandey’s lawyer argued in court.
Pandey also told the court that the iSec Project with NSE was called analysis of recorded calls.
Pandey, a 1986-batch officer, retired from service on June 30 this year. Before his four-month stint as Mumbai’s commissioner of police, he served as the acting Maharashtra director general of police.
Pandey is facing two ED and Central Bureau of Investigation 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.
He has been questioned early this month by the ED in the alleged co-location scam at the NSE.
The CBI on July 8 said that it has registered a case against former Mumbai police commissioner and former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, among others.
The case was registered on the orders of the home ministry in connection with the illegal phone tapping case. The agency also carried out searches at 18 locations.
