NSE phone tapping case: Ex-Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey sent to judicial custody, bail hearing tomorrow

Sanjay Pandey. File Pic

The Rouse Avenue Court on Tuesday sent former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who was recently arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the NSE phone tapping and snooping case, to judicial custody till August 16, 2022.

Special Judge Sunena Sharma noted that accused Sanjay Pandey has been produced after completion of the period of ED custody granted on July 29, 2022. Now, the investigation officer has moved an application under Section 167(2) Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) read with Section 65 of PMLA, 2002 for seeking judicial custody of the accused on the ground that further investigation of the present case is pending. In view of the same, accused Sanjay Pandey is remanded in judicial custody till August 16, 2022.

However, since only part arguments are heard today on the application of the accused for grant of bail on account of the absence of the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) who was unable to physically appear today, the application for grant of bail is adjourned for further arguments tomorrow (August 3), said the Court.

Meanwhile, Advocate Naveen Kumar Matta appeared for Enforcement Directorate and filed the reply copy opposing the bail petition at this stage.

In his bail plea, Sanjay Pandey stated that "he had investigated and prosecuted several high-profile and politically sensitive cases and the instant proceedings are a political fallout of honest and sincere discharge of his duties as a senior police officer."

The instant case is clearly motivated by political considerations and it is also evident from the fact that an offence that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2017 is being investigated in 2022 i.e., thirteen years after its purported commencement and five years after its purported closure; and that too within a week of the Applicant demitting his office, stated Sanjay Pandey's bail petition.

Advocate Aditya Wadhwa with Advocate Siddharth Sunil represented Sanjay Pandey and submitted that the huge delay in the registration of the said FIR raises serious doubts as to the bonafide of the investigation. It appears that the applicant (Sanjay Pandey) is arraigned in the present case, for no fault of his own, and only to fulfill some political vendetta.

Earlier, during the arguments held before the court, Sanjay Pandey spoke to the judge directly and said he did not tap his phone in the NSE.

"The project that ISEC was called analysis of recorded calls. We never did any tapping or any live monitoring. We neither had equipment nor were told to tap. Every recording was done by NSE. The machine was installed in NSE and they are the ones who tapped. What is my culpability?"

Advocate Aditya Wadhwa submitted that the company carries out a forensic study of conversations that had been independently recorded by NSE. "I gave an analysis of the same. Call analysis is what I did for them."

Advocate Wadhwa also submitted that "I was a capable public servant till June 30. I was handling the law and order situation in Mumbai as a police commissioner till then. Suddenly after my retirement, 2 FIRs have been registered against me in just 7 days. And now I am arrested. My arresting is clear a political vendetta."

For ED, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju and Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta had appeared and submitted that he (Sanjay Pandey) resigned in April 2000 and there was litigation between 2001-2006 during his service. VRS moved in 2007 and in October 2008 and he withdrew that.

He formed a company incorporated in 2001 when this was incorporated he was still in service even if he was not the director of the company, he attended the meeting. We have records defacto he was in control. ED further submitted that the contract came in as facade 120-B is a predicate offense / criminal conspiracy held. MTNL lines were tapped. This company was a family concern and 4.54 crores were proceeds of crime.

The agency's move comes after it reportedly found enough evidence in the NSE co-location scam in which it wanted to know the role of an audit company, incorporated in 2001 by the retired Mumbai Police chief, for raising a red flag that the NSE servers were compromised. The compromise had allowed one of the trading companies to get unfair access to the system, resulting in windfall profits.

The case is already being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since 2018.

It is alleged that the firm incorporated by Pandey was one of the IT companies tasked with conducting security audits at NSE during 2010 to 2015 when the co-location scam is believed to have taken place.

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