Sanjay Pandey retired from the IPS on June 30. (File)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey after a second consecutive day of questioning in a case related to alleged snooping of employees at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Besides Mr Pandey -- a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who retired from service at the end of last month -- NSE's former chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna has already been arrested, last week. Yesterday, a Delhi court extended the ED custody of Ms Ramkrishna by four days.
As for Mr Pandey's arrest, at its nub is the alleged tapping of phones belonging to the NSE staff by an IT security company that he founded.
Investigators say Mr Pandey remained closely related to this company, iSec Services Private Limited, during the snooping between 2009 and 2017, even though he'd quit as its director in 2006. It had been incorporated by Mr Pandey in March 2001; and in 2006 his son and mother took over. The Enforcement Directorate suspects the tapping may have been going on since as far back as 1997.
So far, there are two FIRs by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate has taken cognisance of the same and initiated money laundering probe.
Accusations include illegal interception of phones and violation of guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in conducting NSE's system audit. This system audit was conducted by iSec Services.
The CBI had registered its FIR on July 8, and it also questioned Sanjay Pandey that day. It names another former CEO of NSE, Ravi Narain, besides Chitra Ramkrishna, and Mr Pandey.