Delhi High Court seeks ED stand on bail plea by ex-Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the stand of the Enforcement Directorate ED on a bail plea by exMumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of National Stock Exchange NSE employeesJustice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to ED on the bail plea and asked it to file its status reportThe judge also issued notice and sought response from the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI on separate petitions filed by Pandey and his company iSec Services Private Limited seeking quashing of the FIR lodged by the agency in relation to the alleged phone tapping for alleged commission of offences under the Indian Penal Code Indian Telegraph Act and Prevention of Corruption ActAccording to the CBI iSec in conspiracy with other accused persons illegally intercepted MTNL lines at the NSE between 2009 and 2017 and recorded calls by various NSE officials It was alleged that the telephone monitoring was carried out by iSec without taking permission of the competent authority as required under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and also without the knowledge or consent of NSE employeesPandey who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 19 is currently in judicial custodySenior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Pandey who challenged a trial courts August 4 order rejecting bail urged the court to list the bail plea after a short date and said He is a senior citizen a police commissioner He is not going to run awayAlso Read Mumbai Ambani hoaxer has been ill since 1993 bomb blastsIt was further contended that the CBI FIR ought to be quashed on grounds that no offence as alleged by the agency is made out against the former Mumbai top copIn his petition seeking quashing of the FIR in the CBI case Pandey contended that the FIR has been registered only to fulfil a iquestpolitical vendettaiquest against himThe plea said the FIR was wholly baseless and that no offence was made outWhile rejecting Pandeys bail earlier this month the trial court had said the material available prima face showed he was actively involved in the execution of recording and monitoring of calls at the NSE and was directly communicating with the bourse staff as well as those of the iSec Services which was responsible for the cyber security audit of the NSEThe trial court had noted that the material collected by the investigating officer iquestprima faceiquest showed the retired IPS officer was in de facto control of the affairs of iSec even after 2006 when he resigned as a director and kept attending the meetings with NSE officialsIt had said since the applicant was the chief of Mumbai Police till June 30 2022 the apprehension of the investigating agency that he may influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidence was not unfoundedThe ED had on July 14 arrested Chitra Ramkrishna the former MD and CEO of the NSE in the phone tapping caseRamkrishna was then already in jail in the CBI case relating to the colocation scam at the NSE involving alleged manipulation of the bourseThe matter would be heard next in SeptemberThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever