Mumbai, Jul 20 (Bureau) Former city police commissioner Sanjay Pandey was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday in connection with the National Stock Exchange phone-tapping scam. He has been arrested under the Money Laundering Act. The former police chief appeared before ED today for questioning in the money laundering case related to the alleged phone-tapping of NSE employees. He was also questioned by the agency on Monday. Pandey retired on June 30. Prior to his four-month stint as Mumbai Police commissioner, he had also served as Acting Director General of Police, Maharashtra.
There are many allegations against Sanjay Pandey, sources in ED said. At the same time, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Monday that Ishea Pandey and another former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh were interrogated in connection with extortion of Rs 100 crore against former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh. Both CBI and ED have registered a case against Sanjay Pandey in alleged illegal phone-tapping of NSE employees. The ED had also questioned him earlier this month in the ‘co-location’ scam case.
The CBI and now ED registered a case against Pandey and his Delhi-based company ISEC Services Pvt Ltd, along with Narayan, former NSE managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna, executive vice-president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others. ED had received a phone call during its investigation into alleged financial irregularities in NSE, which was reported to the Union Home Ministry. The Ministry then asked CBI to investigate these allegations. CBI has alleged that Narayan, Ramakrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally tap phones of NSE employees between 2009 and 2017, for which they employed ISEC Services Pvt Ltd, a company set up by Pandey in 2001. The company was closed after IPS officer Pandey resigned, but his resignation was not accepted. CBI has alleged that the company had allegedly received Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping. The investigation agency has also claimed that the company had also provided a written copy of the taped conversation to the stock exchange’s senior management.