Was whistleblower at NSE; phone tapping of employees not criminal offence: Former Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey to Delhi court

Former Mumbai top cop Sanjay Pandey, arrested in a money laundering case, told a Delhi court on Wednesday that he was in fact a whistleblower at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) even as the Enforcement at Directorate (ED) opposed his bail plea stating he was an influential person and involved in illegal tapping of phones [Sanjay Pandey v. ED].The arguments took place before Special Judge Sunena Sharma, who reserved the order in Pandey’s bail plea for Thursday.Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, appearing for Pandey, said that the service rendered by his client was that of a “whistleblower”, carrying out services to bring to fore “IPL betting, system operation breach, excess control breach” etc. .Elaborating on his client’s job profile for the NSE, the lawyer pointed out that it was to ensure that the “trade secret doesn't go out” or “insider trading” doesn’t happen.“Isme Maine kaunsa criminal offence kar diya? (What’s the criminal offence in this?) Work related to probity related to your (NSE) operations. NSE has been recording (calls) since 1997 for transparency,” he submitted.He had also submitted earlier, “I'm actually a whistleblower for suspicious activity in NSE.”Following the statement, the Judge asked, “Were you engaged as a spy?”Mir raised his reservation on the usage of the word “spy” and argued that his client's job was to flag suspicious calls made internally by the employees inside this organisation so as to get an idea whether any criminal activity was going on..According to Mir, the offences under the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act were not made out. He also said that amount of ₹4.74 crore cited by ED as proceeds of crime was not a result of multi-layered transactions or routing through different sources.He also argued that call recording was a regular practice among public companies, including banks. He said there was Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) circular to this effect.“Har jagah recording ho rahi hai, including government companies and banks,” he said..The ED, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju and Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta, opposed the bail plea saying Pandey was an influential person.The ASG also argued that offences dealing with criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy were made out in the case.Contesting the argument of call recording being permitted by the NSE, Raju outlined that there was an element of consent whenever a company decides to record calls.“Recording happening by companies where it is said ‘call is being recorded for training and quality purposes’,” he illustrated.The ASG submitted that the SEBI circular didn't allow call recording of private conversation of employees.“SEBI or NSE has no business to tinker or tamper with MTNL lines. SEBI guidelines is only a facade. Circular is of 2017. This (offence) is prior,” he submitted..Pandey is facing ED and CBI FIRs alleging illegal tapping of phones of NSE employees by iSec Services Private Ltd, a company he founded, and violation of SEBI guidelines in conducting NSE’s system audit.The Court had on Tuesday remanded him to judicial custody till August 16.It is alleged that illegal tapping of MTNL phones was contrary to the Telegraph Act. For this purpose, ₹4.54 crore was paid which becomes proceeds of crime, it has been contended.