News Analysis India

Tag: Sanjay Pandey

  • NSE phone tapping case: CBI gets custody of ex-Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has taken four-day custody of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees by his information technology firm, officials said on Saturday.

    Pandey was already in the judicial custody of the Enforcement Directorate in connection with probes against him.

    The CBI approached a special CBI court here seeking his custody in connection with the tapping case which was granted for four days during which he will be interrogated by the agency, the officials said.

    In addition to Pandey and former MD and CEO of NSE Chitra Ramkrishna, the CBI has also named another former NSE CEO and MD Ravi Narain in the case.

    It is alleged iSec Securities Pvt.Ltd, one of the firms that conducted a security audit of NSE, had illegally tapped phones of NSE employees during 2009-17, the CBI said.

    The company was incorporated by Pandey in March 2001 and he quit as its director in May 2006.

    His son and mother took over charge of the company.

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has taken four-day custody of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees by his information technology firm, officials said on Saturday.

    Pandey was already in the judicial custody of the Enforcement Directorate in connection with probes against him.

    The CBI approached a special CBI court here seeking his custody in connection with the tapping case which was granted for four days during which he will be interrogated by the agency, the officials said.

    In addition to Pandey and former MD and CEO of NSE Chitra Ramkrishna, the CBI has also named another former NSE CEO and MD Ravi Narain in the case.

    It is alleged iSec Securities Pvt.Ltd, one of the firms that conducted a security audit of NSE, had illegally tapped phones of NSE employees during 2009-17, the CBI said.

    The company was incorporated by Pandey in March 2001 and he quit as its director in May 2006.

    His son and mother took over charge of the company.

  • Company founded by Mumbai ex-top cop violated SEBI orders in NSE brokers’ audit: CBI

    The CBI has alleged that iSec services had conducted audit of two “high risk brokers” — SMC Global Securities Ltd and Shaastra Securities Trading Private Limited — in a fraudulent manner.

  • NSE illegal phone tapping: ED files money laundering case against former Mumbai top cop

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping case of the stock exchange employees, officials said Thursday.

    It also placed Ramkrishna, till now in judicial custody in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) colocation case linked to alleged manipulation of the bourse, under arrest.

    A Delhi court later granted the anti-money laundering probe agency her custody for four days.

    Pandey is understood to have been summoned by the ED to appear before the agency on Friday in Delhi for questioning in the phone tapping case, the officials said.

    The federal probe agency filed the fresh case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a week after the CBI booked them.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of NSE, had roped in a company founded by retired IPS officer Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls.

    The CBI, and now the ED, have named Pandey, his Delhi-based company iSEC Services Pvt.

    Ltd, NSE’s former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective complaints.

    The ED will probe if any proceeds of crime were generated through this alleged illegal act and the accused laundered public funds.

    Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired from service on June 30.

    Before his four-month stint as Mumbai’s commissioner of police, he served as acting Maharashtra director general of police (DGP).

    He was questioned by the ED on July 5 in the alleged NSE colocation scam case in Delhi.

    The ED discovered secret phone surveillance while probing the alleged financial irregularities at the NSE following which it reported it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which asked the CBI to probe the charges, the officials said.

    The CBI had alleged in its complaint that during the period 2009-17, Narain, Ramkrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees for which they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, founded by Pandey in 2001.

    Pandey had incorporated the company after resigning from service but his resignation was not accepted.

    The company allegedly received a payment of Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping which was camouflaged as “Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities” at the NSE, the CBI alleged.

    The company also provided transcripts of the tapped conversations to senior management of the stock market, it had claimed.

    “Top officials of NSE issued agreement and work orders in favour of said private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines, in contravention of provisions under Indian Telegraph Act,” a statement from the CBI said.

    Officials said the interception was stopped in 2019, months after the CBI started probing the NSE colocation scam in 2018, and the machines and other infrastructure used for interception were disposed of as e-waste by the bourse.

    The alleged fraud relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.

    The CBI also conducted raids last week in the phone tapping case and claimed to have recovered original transcripts, raid server, voice samples, two laptops containing evidence related to interception, bills generated for services rendered by iSEC, among others, from the company premises.

    They had said four MTNL lines used by NSE employees having capacity for 120 calls at a time were under the scanner.

    The CBI alleged that no permission for this activity was obtained from the competent authority as provided for under section five of the Indian Telegraph Act.

    “No consent of the employees of NSE was also taken in this matter,” it said.

    The CBI has also listed as accused the then directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd Santosh Pandey, Anand Narayan, Armaan Pandey, Manish Mittal, former Senior Information Security Analyst Naman Chaturvedi and Arun Kumar Singh.

    The company had done the safety audit around the time the colocation scam was alleged to have taken place.

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping case of the stock exchange employees, officials said Thursday.

    It also placed Ramkrishna, till now in judicial custody in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) colocation case linked to alleged manipulation of the bourse, under arrest.

    A Delhi court later granted the anti-money laundering probe agency her custody for four days.

    Pandey is understood to have been summoned by the ED to appear before the agency on Friday in Delhi for questioning in the phone tapping case, the officials said.

    The federal probe agency filed the fresh case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a week after the CBI booked them.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of NSE, had roped in a company founded by retired IPS officer Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls.

    The CBI, and now the ED, have named Pandey, his Delhi-based company iSEC Services Pvt.

    Ltd, NSE’s former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective complaints.

    The ED will probe if any proceeds of crime were generated through this alleged illegal act and the accused laundered public funds.

    Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired from service on June 30.

    Before his four-month stint as Mumbai’s commissioner of police, he served as acting Maharashtra director general of police (DGP).

    He was questioned by the ED on July 5 in the alleged NSE colocation scam case in Delhi.

    The ED discovered secret phone surveillance while probing the alleged financial irregularities at the NSE following which it reported it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which asked the CBI to probe the charges, the officials said.

    The CBI had alleged in its complaint that during the period 2009-17, Narain, Ramkrishna, Varanasi and Haldipur conspired to illegally intercept the telephones of NSE employees for which they hired iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, founded by Pandey in 2001.

    Pandey had incorporated the company after resigning from service but his resignation was not accepted.

    The company allegedly received a payment of Rs 4.45 crore for illegal tapping which was camouflaged as “Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities” at the NSE, the CBI alleged.

    The company also provided transcripts of the tapped conversations to senior management of the stock market, it had claimed.

    “Top officials of NSE issued agreement and work orders in favour of said private company and illegally intercepted the phone calls of its employees by installing machines, in contravention of provisions under Indian Telegraph Act,” a statement from the CBI said.

    Officials said the interception was stopped in 2019, months after the CBI started probing the NSE colocation scam in 2018, and the machines and other infrastructure used for interception were disposed of as e-waste by the bourse.

    The alleged fraud relates to manipulation of the stock market through electronic contrivances.

    The CBI also conducted raids last week in the phone tapping case and claimed to have recovered original transcripts, raid server, voice samples, two laptops containing evidence related to interception, bills generated for services rendered by iSEC, among others, from the company premises.

    They had said four MTNL lines used by NSE employees having capacity for 120 calls at a time were under the scanner.

    The CBI alleged that no permission for this activity was obtained from the competent authority as provided for under section five of the Indian Telegraph Act.

    “No consent of the employees of NSE was also taken in this matter,” it said.

    The CBI has also listed as accused the then directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd Santosh Pandey, Anand Narayan, Armaan Pandey, Manish Mittal, former Senior Information Security Analyst Naman Chaturvedi and Arun Kumar Singh.

    The company had done the safety audit around the time the colocation scam was alleged to have taken place.

  • System worked to undo ‘injustice’ done to my career, leaving post with clear conscience: Ex-Maharashtra DGP

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: IPS officer Sanjay Pandey, who was replaced by Rajnish Seth as the Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) two days back, has said in a social media post that the system worked to “undo some of injustice” done to his career record in the past and he was leaving the post with “clear conscience”.

    The Maharashtra government on Friday appointed IPS officer Seth as the new DGP of the state.

    The 1988 cadre IPS officer replaced Pandey, who held the additional charge of the post since April 9, 2021.

    In a Facebook post on Saturday, Pandey said, “In these 10 plus months, I have had a chance to contribute to making some important long-term policy changes ranging from conditions of work for policewomen to stepping up dignitary for the men and women in the police force who have kept our State running on the ground.”

    “I have faced many a hurdle and attempt to undermine my work in the past, and indeed won recognition for a job sincerely done. One is used to being a recipient of bouquets and brickbats, all with the same equanimity. The only irony in present juncture is that in recent times, the system did work to undo some of injustice done to my career record in the past,” he said.

    “I leave this position with my conscience clear that neither did I crave for the additional charge as a DGP nor did I flinch when the responsibility was given to me. I do hope that the inequities and the unfairness that a policeman in my place could be forced to handle, will lead to some long-term introspection and administrative reform, where courts having had to step in to legislate, take note of the circumstances and developments and further nuance and strengthen the environment for nurturing honest police leadership,” Pandey added.

    In the post, the IPS officer mentioned that during his tenure, several proposals, including for police constable to sub inspector promotion, 1.5 times salary for men posted in headquarters in Gadchiroli, increase in allowance for dog squad, were sent (for approval).

    He said it was his firm belief that these proposals will soon be operationalised.

    “Training for persons completing 10, 20 and 30 years was started. We also suggested salutary changes in Bombay Police Act to effect changes in transfer committees and also tenures in various police units,” he added.

  • Will hear acting Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey over plea for permanent appointment: Bombay HC

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday said it will have to hear senior IPS officer and current acting Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra, Sanjay Pandey before passing an order on a petition seeking permanent appointment of an officer to the post.

    A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik said that while earlier this week it had closed the matter for judgment noting that there was no need to hear Pandey, it has later come to the court’s notice that there are some direct allegations against the IPS officer in the petition.

    “While dictating our judgment in the case, we came across a few paragraphs in the petition where there are certain direct allegations made against Sanjay Pandey. In view of this, we deem it appropriate and necessary to implead Sanjay Pandey as a party respondent in the petition. We will hear him first and then pass our judgment,” the court said.

    The court recalled its January 25 order reserving the matter for judgment. The bench on Friday directed Pandey to file his affidavit in response to the petition by February 4. The Maharashtra government and the UPSC shall also file affidavits if they wish to, the bench said, posting the matter for further hearing.

    The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by a city-based advocate Datta Mane seeking directions to the state government to make a permanent appointment to the post of the Director General of Police (DGP).

    Mane’s counsel Abhinav Chandrachud had argued that as per a judgment passed by the Supreme Court, the post of the state’s top police officer could not be an acting one and that an officer with the minimum tenure requirements as per the 2006 ruling must be appointed.

    The petition sought that the state government must appoint a DGP as per the recommendation made by the selection committee of the UPSC in November 2021.

    Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for the state government, had told the court that Pandey, currently the senior most IPS officer in the state, had been appointed as the acting DGP last year after the then DGP Subodh Jaiswal vacated the post midterm following his transfer to the CBI.

    In the November 1 meeting of the UPSC selection committee, of which the state’s then Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte was a party, the names of IPS officers Hemant Nagrale, Rajnish Seth and K Venkatesham were recommended for the post of Maharashtra DGP.

    Kunte signed off on the three names at the time, but on November 8, he wrote to the UPSC saying that it had erred in not recommending the current acting DGP Sanjay Pandey’s name and that it would reconsider the same.

    The court had earlier this week noted that Kunte’s conduct was not proper and not based on any legal principles. The bench had noted that it did not behove Kunte to have not raised a grievance or pointed out the error committed, if any, by the committee before signing off on the three names.

    Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Union government, had told the court that once the three names had been recommended, there was no question for the UPSC to reconsider the same.

  • Maharashtra govt moves HC against CBI summons to chief secretary, DGP in Anil Deshmukh case 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the recent summons issued by the CBI to state Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte and Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey in connection with the FIR registered by the central agency against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.

    The state government filed a writ petition on Tuesday and mentioned it on Wednesday before a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal, seeking urgent hearing.

    The HC posted the plea for hearing on October 20.

    Earlier this month, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued summons to Kunte and Pandey, asking them to appear before it this week in connection with the FIR registered the probe agency against NCP leader Deshmukh for alleged political interference in transfers and postings of police officers.

    The allegations of such interference and misconduct on part of Deshmukh were made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in March this year through a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

    Following a subsequent order of the Bombay high court, the CBI conducted a preliminary enquiry into the allegations.

    In April this year, the central agency registered the FIR against Deshmukh and other persons.

    Deshmukh, who resigned from the post of state home minister in April, is facing probe by central agencies on multiple charges. He has repeatedly denied the allegations levelled against him.

  • Rape and murder of minors taking place, cops must act quickly: Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Rape and murder of minor girls had taken place in Maharashtra in the past few days and the police must probe them as soon as possible, arrest the culprits and charge sheets must be filed within 60 days, state Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

    The DGP also said that police must monitor railway stations, colleges etc to keep a check on eve-teasing. Meanwhile, a team from the National Commission for Women met Pandey in connection with the Sakinaka rape case during the day.

    A 34-year-old woman was raped and inflicted with severe injuries on her private parts and body with an iron rod in a stationary tempo in Sakinaka in the early hours of Friday, leading to her death in a nearby hospital on Saturday.