Ex MDs of NSE Ravi Narain, Chitra Ramakrishna, Ex Mumbai Police CP Sanjay Pandey Chargesheeted: ED

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has filed its first prosecution complaint, which is equivalent to a chargesheet, in a money laundering case revolving around the illegal phone tapping of NSE employees

The federal probe agency has filed its chargesheet before a special court in New Delhi on Friday.

The Prosecution Complaint is against

(a) former managing director of NSE Chitra Ramakrishna,

(h) first managing director and longest-serving head of NSE Ravi Narain

(c) former Mumbai Police CP Sanjay Police

(d) iSec Securities

Pandey was arrested soon after he retired from police services. The ED had taken cognisance of the CBI FIR. In the CBI FIR complainant is the Ministry of Home Affairs on a reference note given by the Enforcement Directorate which pointed out that illegal interception of phone calls of NSE staff had taken place.

This is the second chargesheet that has been filed against Chitra. Earlier she was named as an accused along with then NSE's Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian by the CBI in the colocation and algorithm scam. With the court denying bail to her, Chitra is presently in judicial custody.

Post his arrest, Sanjay Pandey has said he is a victim of a "political fight".

ED case revolves around how on the pretext of carrying out "a periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities" the then top management of NSE signed a contract with iSec Securities company. It is alleged that iSec Securities is a company allegedly controlled by Sanjay Pandey. He, however, had denied those charges.

"iSec Securities "illegally intercepted" phone calls of NSE staff by using "illegal machines" of which no requisite permission was taken. Investigations show iSec Securities made a profit of Rs 4.5 crores by signing this contract. Total proceeds of crime worth around Rs 8 crore. ED suspects money laundering could be over Rs 12.5 crores," said ED sources.

After registering the case, the CBI carried out searches in multiple cities. The probe agency found out that the Jogeshwari office in Mumbai had the facility to intercept 120 calls with 4 landlines of 30 calls. These landlines were at NSE.

"In 2016 a whistleblower had approached, the market watchdog, SEBI, with a complaint that some brokers and security firms are being given preferential treatment. A year later phone tapping of NSE staff was stopped," said CBI sources.

After the colocation scam, NSE officials tried to dispose of the phone tapping machine as E-waste in 2019.