The CBI alleges that Chitra Ramakrishna supervised the illegal activity for about 12 years. (File)
new Delhi:
The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has filed a charge sheet against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Chitra Ramakrishna and other top officials of the exchange in connection with alleged phone tapping of stock market officials. , officials said today.
The CBI, in a charge sheet filed before a special court here, has alleged that the National Stock Exchange (NSE) paid Rs 4.54 crore (approx) over 8 years to ISEC Services Pvt Ltd, where Sanjay Pandey was a director. He said that in the name of cyber vulnerability study, the phones of the employees of the exchange are intercepted illegally.
“It was alleged that unauthorized recording and monitoring of individual call lines in NSE began in 1997 when the then MD of NSE (Ravi Narayan) and the then DMD/MD (Ramakrishna) accessed the call lines of NSE employees provided by a private The digital voice recorder was attached to the company,” said a CBI spokesperson here.
The agency has named Sanjay Pandey, two former executives of the accused company, former NSE top executives including Managing Director Ravi Narayan, Deputy Managing Director Ramakrishna, Executive Vice President Ravi Varanasi, Head (Complex) Mahesh Haldipur, Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian. Officer on Special Duty SB Thosar, and Manager (Campus) Bhupesh Mistry.
The agency has charged them with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, criminal breach of trust, under provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
He said that the CBI had taken up the case on July 7, 2022, based on information received during the investigation of co-location scam in NSE that ISEC Services was illegally tapping landline phones of NSE employees.
According to the CBI, the illegal interception began in 1997 when Narayan and Ramakrishna connected the call lines of NSE employees to a digital voice recorder provided by a private company.
The agency has alleged that Chitra Ramakrishna, with the help of other accused NSE officials, monitored the illegal activity for about 12 years.
In 2009, monitoring of the calls was handed over to ISEC, where Pandey was a director.
“The work order was allegedly issued to the said private company in the name of ‘periodic cyber vulnerability studies’ to maintain confidentiality,” the official said.
The company installed a high-end equipment in the basement of NSE in 2012, capable of recording 120 calls simultaneously.
“The employees of the said private company were given unauthorized entry into the NSE premises to listen to these calls and submit weekly reports to the NSE officials – the then Executive Vice President and the then Head (Campus),” the spokesperson said.
In return, reports were being shown regularly to Narayan and Ramakrishna, they said, adding that ISEC’s contract was being renewed annually during 2009-17.
“During investigation it was found that one of the accused (Pandey) was working as a police officer and was allegedly managing the affairs of the said company. Paid Rs 4.54 crore (approx) in 8 years. NSE employees are being illegally detained in the name of cyber vulnerability study.”
Call records of hundreds of NSE employees were allegedly kept in the custody of the said private company, and interception was done without the knowledge or consent of the NSE board. The CBI has accused the employees of NSE.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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