Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey walked out of the jail last night after the Special CBI court in Delhi granted him bail in illegal phone tapping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees case.
Special judge Sunena Sharma granted him on furnishing personal bond of Rs 1 lakh observing that he was already granted bail by the Delhi High Court in money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Lack of essential ingredients in case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested him in September in connection to the case. On December 8, he was granted bail by the Delhi HC in the ED matter.
“Considering the fact that the High Court has already granted bail to the accused/applicant (Pandey) in the connected ED matter, which in the light of Section 45 PMLA embodies far more stringent conditions for grant of bail, I find no reason to decline bail to the applicant in the present case,” observed special judge Sharma. She added: “… all the offences other than predicate offences of the present FIR are bailable. In view thereof, the accused is granted bail.”
The court also took note of the observation made by the HC regarding the lack of essential ingredients of the predicate offences and said, this court is inclined to grant bail to the accused/applicant even in the instant case.
“In the light of the observation made by the Hon’ble High Court regarding lack of essential ingredient of the predicate offences, this court is inclined to grant bail to the accused/applicant even in the instant case,” added the special court.
The special judge dismissed the arguments of the CBI that it was not a party to Pandey’s bail application in the ED case and hence that cannot be a ground to urge this court to take a different view with regard to the predicate offences. The court averred: “Mere fact that CBI was not a party to bail application of the applicant moved before the Hon’ble High Court in said ED matter, cannot be a ground to urge before this court to take a different view with regard to the predicate offences.”
“Undoubtedly, the observations contained in the aforementioned order are reflective of only the prima facie view taken by the High Court but, this court also at this stage is required to only take a prima facie view of the matter," the court said while granting bail.
Pandey's association with iSec
Pandey, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service officer retired from service on June 30. He was arrested by the CBI on September 24.
According to the CBI, Pandey was found to be closely associated with the functioning and activities of a company called iSec Securities Pvt. Ltd. The company had conducted a security audit of NSE around the time when the alleged co-location irregularities took place.
The company was incorporated by Pandey in March 2001 and he quit as its director in May 2006. His son and mother took over the charge of the company. It has been alleged that illegal phone tapping of NSE employees was done between 2009-17.
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