CBI files charge sheet against ex-Mumbai police commissioner in phone tapping case

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and other top executives of the bourse in connection with alleged tapping of phones of executives of the stock market officials said FridayThe agency in its charge sheet filed before a special court here has alleged that National Stock Exchange NSE had paid Rs 454 crore approx in 8 years to ISEC Services Pvt Ltd where Pandey was a director for carrying out illegal interception of phones at the bourse employees in the name of cyber vulnerability study they saidIt was alleged that unauthorised recording and monitoring of personal call lines in NSE started in 1997 when then MD Ravi Narain and then DMDMD Ramkrishna of NSE connected call lines of NSE employees to a digital voice recorder provided by a private company CBI spokesperson said hereThe agency has named Pandey two former executives of the accused company former top executives of NSE including managing director Ravi Narain deputy managing director Ramkrishna executive vice president Ravi Varanasi head premises Mahesh Haldipur group operating officer Anand Subramanian officer on special duty SB Thosar and manager premises Bhupesh MistryAlso read Itrsquos clear political vendetta exMumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey tells courtThe agency has accused them under charges of criminal conspiracy destruction of evidence criminal breach of trust provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and Prevention of Corruption Act they saidThe CBI had taken up the case on July 7 2022 based on the inputs received during the probe of the Colocation Scam in NSE that ISEC Services were illegally tapping landline phones of NSE employees they saidAccording to CBI the illegal interception started in 1997 when Narain and Ramkrishna connected NSE employees call lines to a digital voice recorder provided by a private companyRamkrishna supervised the illegal activity for nearly 12 years with the help of other accused NSE executives the agency has allegedIn 2009 the monitoring of calls was handed over to ISEC where Pandey was a directorTo maintain secrecy the work order was allegedly issued to said private company in the name of conducting a periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities the official saidThe company installed a highend apparatus in 2012 in NSEs basement capable of recording 120 calls simultaneouslyThe employees of said private company were given unauthorised access to NSE premises to listen to these calls and submit weekly reports to NSE officialsthen executive vice president and then head premises the spokesperson saidThe reports in turn were being shown to Narain and Ramkrishna regularly they said adding that the contract of ISEC was getting renewed annually during 200917It was found during the investigation that an accused Pandey working as a Police officer was allegedly managing the affairs of said company The NSE ended up paying Rs 454 crore approx in 8 years to said private company for carrying out such illegal interception of NSE employees in the name of cyber vulnerability study he saidThe call records of hundreds of NSE employees were allegedly kept in the custody of said private company and the entire interception was done without the knowledge or consent of the NSE board NSE employees the CBI has allegedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever