A Delhi court on Tuesday sent former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey to judicial custody till August 16 in connection with a case of alleged tapping of phones of employees of the National Stock Exchange, reported PTI.
Pandey was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 19 and was remanded in the agency’s custody for nine days.
On Tuesday, Public Prosecutor NK Matta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, told the court that the agency did not require further custody of Pandey, but said that the investigation in the case was ongoing.
Meanwhile, Special Judge Sunena Sharma also adjourned the hearing on Pandey’s bail application till August 3, noting that the arguments remained inconclusive, PTI reported.
Pandey was booked by the agency on money laundering charges on July 14 along with former chiefs of the National Stock Exchange Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain.
The case is linked to the alleged phone tapping of employees of the National Stock Exchange during the period when a co-location scam took place. The Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged that Pandey had set up a company called iSec Securities, which was used for electronic surveillance of the employees.
The co-location scam pertains to allegations of preferential access to the National Stock Exchange trading platform that allowed certain brokers to trade before the markets opened. The first FIR in the case was filed in 2018.
Ramkrishna and Narain, both former managing directors and chief executive officers of the stock exchange, have already been booked for the co-location scam by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Pandey was first questioned by the Enforcement Directorate on July 5 for its investigation into a money laundering angle in the co-location scam. He had retired as Mumbai Police commissioner on June 30.
Enforcement Directorate officials allege that the agency had found evidence of secret phone surveillance during the questioning. The agency then informed about the development to the Union home affairs ministry which asked the CBI to investigate the case.
iSec Securities was one of the firms tasked to conduct security audits at the National Stock Exchange between 2010 to 2015, during which the co-location scam allegedly took place. The company did not alert the stock exchange that its servers were compromised, the CBI has alleged.
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