A special CBI court in Delhi on Wednesday remanded former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey to nine days in custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, involving alleged illegal phone tapping of National Stock Exchange employees.
Special Judge Sunena Sharma of the Rouse Avenue court here allowed ED to interrogate Mr. Pandey in their custody after the agency said he needed to be confronted with documents related to the case and other accused.
Prosecutors assisting the ED said that Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju appeared for the agency in court on Wednesday and moved an application seeking 14 days' custody of Mr. Pandey, who was arrested on Tuesday.
The agency has alleged that Mr. Pandey had indulged in the unlawful act of tapping MTNL phones, for which over ₹450 crore was paid, which had now become proceeds of crime that the agency needs to investigate.
Produced before the court by the ED, Mr. Pandey on Wednesday denied the allegations against him and claimed that his arrest was part of a political vendetta. Advocate Aditya Wadhwa, appearing for Mr. Pandey, submitted before the court that his client's company had been engaged by the NSE with the sole purpose of "sprucing up" their cyber security and detecting possible cyber vulnerabilities.
"It was an entirely benevolent task undertaken by the company and it merely analysed the recordings provided to it by the NSE," Mr. Wadhwa said.
The ED had earlier in the case also arrested former NSE Managing Director Chitra Ramkrishna after calling her in for questioning. A local court had then remanded her to four days in ED custody.
The ED's case is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, in which apart from Mr. Pandey and Ms. Ramkrishna, former NSE managing director Ravi Narain, its then executive vice-president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, Delhi-based iSec Services Private Limited and its functionaries, among others, are named as accused.
