ED questions former Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey in NSE co-location case

Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged National Stock Exchange NSE colocation scamThe agency recorded his statement under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA officials saidThe 1986batch Indian Police Service IPS officer retired from service on June 30 Before his fourmonth stint as Mumbais commissioner of police beginning March 1 he served as acting Maharashtra director general of police DGPPandeys questioning by the ED is related to the functioning and activities of a company called iSec Securities Pvt Ltd one firm amongst a few others that conducted a security audit of NSE around the time the colocation irregularities are alleged to have taken placeThe company was incorporated by Pandey in March 2001 and he quit as its director in May 2006 His son and mother took over charge of the companyAlso read Mumbai ED summons exCP Sanjay Pandey in moneylaundering caseThe ED wants to understand the mandate operations and results achieved by the company while it worked with the NSE officials saidThe agency has already recorded former NSE managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishnas statement in connection with the caseRamkrishna is lodged in Tihar jail She and former group operating officer Anand Subramanian were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI in March in the NSE colocation scam case The ED took cognisance of this CBI complaint to press money laundering charges against themThe Income Tax Department is the third agency probing these charges of irregularities at the NSEThe ED like the CBI widened its net to probe alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as chief strategic advisor and his redesignation as group operating officer and advisor to the then MD RamkrishnaIt also conducted raids in this case including at the premises of the brokers involved in the colocation caseThe Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI had launched its probe into the colocation matter in early 2015 after it was brought to light by a whistleblower The whistleblower alleged that some brokers were getting preferential access through colocation facility early login and dark fiber which can allow a trader splitsecond faster access to data feed of an exchangeAs part of this facility brokers could place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets It is alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the colocation facility to make windfall profitsRamkrishna got elevated as MD and CEO of the exchange on April 1 2013 and left the bourse in 2016It was during this period that colocation was started by NSE the CBI has allegedThe action by the central agencies against Ramkrishna Subramanian and others was renewed after a report of market regulator Sebi came on February 11It charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as chief strategic advisor and his redesignation as group operating officer and advisor to MDRamkrishna had appointed Subramanian as her advisor later elevated as group operating officer GOO at a fat pay cheque of Rs 421 crore annually CBI sources had saidSubramanians controversial appointment and subsequent elevation besides crucial decisions were guided by an unidentified person who Ramkrishna claimed was a formless mysterious yogi dwelling in the Himalayas a probe into her email exchanges during the Sebiordered audit had statedThe ED and other agencies have widened their probe to include the mysterious yogi angle in their probes