ED files charge sheet against Ex-NSE Chief Chitra Ramakrishna, others in phone tapping case
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate Friday filed its charge sheet before Delhi court against former NSE chief Chitra Ramakrishna, its ex-MD Ravi Narain, and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping on stock exchange employees.
The document running into over 2,000 pages was filed before Special Judge Sunena Sharma and also named Pandey's company involved in the phone tapping, iSec Services Pvt Ltd, as an accused in the matter.
"Ahlmad (court official) is directed to check and tally the documents with the list filed along with the complaint," the judge said.
The court also send Narain to judicial custody till September 21, after he was produced before the judge on the expiry of his two-day custodial interrogation.
The judge also directed the Jail Superintendent to make available certain medicines prescribed by the doctor to Narain during the period of his custody.
The court passed the directions after the ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta told the court that the accused was not required for further interrogation in the matter.
According to the ED, the top officials of NSE, including those accused named in the charge sheet, caused the monetary loss to NSE by allowing iSec to gain money out of illegal activity done under the guise of a legitimate contract of 'Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities', the court noted.
It was only with the active assistance and help of Ramkrishna, Narain, and other top officials of NSE, that the iSec was able to generate money to the tune of Rs 4.54 crore and give it a colour of untainted money by showing it to have been earned through a legitimate source, the ED said.
The ED had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in July against former Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former heads of the NSE for allegedly tapping the phones of employees between 2009 and 2017.
This is the second case being probed by the ED about the alleged violation of money laundering norms in the co-location scam.
Pandey and Ramkrishna were arrested in July this year in the case.
Narain was arrested by the agency on Tuesday.
Ramkrishna was earlier arrested by the CBI in March this year in the co-location case.
Pandey's company, iSec Services, formed in 2001, was among the many IT firms that conducted security audits at NSE between 2010 and 2015 when the co-location scam allegedly took place.
The agencies have found that interception was done without employees' consent.