The Delhi High Court granted bail to former Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),2002 case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) about the illegal tapping of phones of employees at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as there was no evidence.
The applicant filed bail applicant against the offence registered based on the FIR by CBI/EO-III/Delhi. Based on the material collected by the ED, it was observed that the central agency has not substantiated that Pandey has derived or obtained any property as a result of a scheduled offence or indulged in any activity or process relating to that property.
The Court stated that “it was not determining the guilt of the accused but only assessing the matter on broad probabilities at the stage of bail”. The money laundering case being probed by the ED arose from a CBI FIR against the Commissioner and his company ISEC Services Private Limited for the alleged commission of offences under the Indian Penal Code, Indian Telegraph Act and Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI found that ISEC, in conspiracy with other accused persons illegally intercepted MTNL lines at the NSE between 2009 and 2017 and recorded calls by various exchange officials. It has been alleged that the telephone monitoring was carried out by ISEC without taking permission from the competent authority as required under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and also without the knowledge or consent of the NSE employees.
Further observed that the offence under section 120-B IPC (PMLA scheduled offence) is also not made out in so far as the criminal intent i.e., agreement to do an illegal act as defined under sec.120-A IPC is not established. NSE has been involved in call recording since 1997 through other vendors such as M/s Comtel before ISEC was brought into the picture to analyse recorded calls.
Since call recording was being done before the arrival of ISEC, there is no criminal conspiracy entered into between ISEC and NSE to commit an illegal act, namely, call recording. Thus no offence under section 120 B read with 409 and 420 IPC is established.
While granting bail, the court directed Pandey to join the investigation whenever asked to, appear before the trial court when the case is taken up, and keep his mobile number switched on at all times. The Court thus granted bail to Pandey and disposed of the bail application.
Justice Jasmeet Singh observed that the Commissioner is prima facie not guilty of acquiring or retaining the proceeds of crime and held that “sec.45 PMLA, prima facie, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Applicant is not guilty of the offence and he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail and an opportunity was given to the ED to oppose the bail application by satisfying the conditions enumerated under 45 PMLA. “
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