The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in a money laundering case. The case, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), involves alleged illegal phone tapping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees.
Justice Jasmeet Singh noted, “There is no allegation that the applicant (Ms. Ramkrishna) has derived or obtained any property or proceeds of crime. Additionally, there is no allegation or evidence produced before me to suggest that the applicant has concealed, possessed, used, projected or claimed any proceeds of crime as untainted property”.
As a condition for bail, the court ordered Ms. Ramkrishna to join investigation when called by the agency.
Ms. Ramkrishna will also have to provide her mobile number to the Investigating Officer (IO) concerned, which shall be kept in working condition at all times. She must also not switch off, or change the same without prior intimation to the officer concerned, during the period of bail, the court said.
Tapping of phone calls
Ms. Ramkrishna and other persons have been alleged to have illegally intercepted or monitored telephone calls of employees of the National Stock Exchange Ltd. (NSE). As per court records, it is stated that illegal tapping of phone calls of NSE employees was conducted under the guise of an agreement between NSE and ISEC Services Private Limited (ISEC).
To conduct Periodic Study Of Cyber Vulnerabilities, a payment of approximately ₹4.54 crores was made by the NSE to the ISEC for the work between January 1, 2009 to February 13, 2017.
It is alleged that ISEC monitored or intercepted the calls of MTNL PRI lines, each having capacity of 30 telephone connections used by the employees of the NSE. It is also alleged that ISEC submitted the transcripts of conversations to top management of the NSE.
Ms. Ramkrishna was the Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of the NSE till 2010, Joint Managing Director (JMD) till March, 2013 and Managing Director (MD) till December, 2016.
Counsel for Ms. Ramkrishna, senior advocate Rebecca John, argued that as per the statement of Sanjay Pandey (one of the co-accused and director of ISEC), it was Mr. Ravi Narain, the then MD of NSE, who introduced her [Ms. Ramkrishna] to Mr. Sanjay Pandey in 2009.
The senior advocate argued that it was Mr. Ravi Narain who asked Mr. Sanjay Pandey to send proposal for the proposed work. “It was in fact Ravi Narain who had decided to utilise the services of Sanjay Pandey and his company, viz. ISEC Services Pvt. Ltd., and not the applicant,” Ms. John argued.
The court, in its 38-page judgment, said, “Prima facie there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Applicant is not guilty of the offence and she is not likely to commit any offence while on bail”.
