Ex-Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey arrested over NSE snooping case

Ever since his retirement on June 30, Sanjay Pandey has been in the crosshairs of CBI and ED. File pic

Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday night in connection with a money laundering case tied to the CBI's NSE snooping probe. Pandey has been in the crosshairs of ED and CBI following his retirement on June 30. ED said he will be produced in a court in Delhi and the agency will seek his custody. Pandey's arrest came after questioning over several hours.

Pandey, his company iSEC Services Pvt. Lt. along with former National Stock Exchange CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain, former MD and CEO, and others were booked by the CBI for allegedly tapping phones of the bourse's employees between 2009 and 2017. As per CBI's FIR, iSEC received R4.54 crore from the NSE for this work. The ED then registered a money laundering case against all the accused mentioned CBI's FIR and it also took the custody of Ramakrishna who is already in jail in the NSE co-location scam.

Pandey's firm iSEC is accused of tapping phones of many NSE employee between 2009 and 2017. File pic

"Pandey's arrest has come after long questioning by ED officials in Delhi on Tuesday. He skipped the second summons issued to him. On Tuesday, his response was not satisfactory as far as the money laundering part was concerned. Hence he has been placed under arrest for further investigation," said an ED officer. Before visiting the ED office, Pandey met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Delhi. On Monday, he was grilled by the CBI in the Rs 100 crore extortion case against former home minister Anil Deshmukh. He was confronted with the former controversial police chief of Mumbai Param Bir Singh.

As per the CBI case, Pandey incorporated iSEC in 2001 and was a director of the company along with one Anand Narayan. Pandey served as director till 2006 before his mother and son Armaan Pandey took over. "iSEC submitted an undated proposal to National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Mumbai to conduct Periodic study of Cyber Vulnerabilities. This proposal was processed by Mahesh Haldipur (AVP), NSE through Chitra RamKrishna (DMD) NSE, After due approval from Ravi Narain (MD) NSE work order was issued on 03.06. 2009 by Mahesh Haldiour to M/s ISEC. Thereafter numerous such work orders were issued to M/s iSEC on the pretext of cyber vulnerabilities of NE between 01.01.2009 and 13.02.201," reads the FIR nu the CBI.

According to CBI, during the initial meeting for this contract in 2009, Pandey had visited NSE to represent his company despite quitting not being a director. The FIR alleges that iSEC set up facilities for monitoring calls at NSE in 2009 on the 7th floor of the Exchange Plaza. "Till 2012. M/s iSEC used the set up provided by the M/s Comtel to NSE to monitor /intercept the calls. Thereafter, NSE purchased a call monitoring set up from ISEC which was installed by them in Upper Basement of the Exchange Plaza," reads the FIR.

"ISEC monitored/ intercepted the calls of these four PRI lines used by employees of NSE. M/S. ISEC also submitted copies of transcript of conversations to the top management of SE between 01.01.2009 to 13.02.2017 without taking permission of the competent authority," it says. CBI has also found that the machine used to tap phones was sold as e-waste.

Before being appointed as Mumbai police chief, Pandey was the director-general of police of Maharashtra. During his tenures as DGP and Mumbai police commissioner, multiple cases were registered against BJP leaders in the state. The police also recorded the statement of now-deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis as a witness in a phone-tapping case.