The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed charge-sheet against seven former top officials of National Stock Exchange (NSE) including Ravi Varanasi, Chitra Ramkrishna and Anand Subramanian, and three ex-employees of ISEC Services Pvt Ltd, such as retired Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey, in the telephone-tapping case.

The CBI charge-sheet against 11 entities, including ISEC, was filed in a designated court at the Rouse Avenue Courts here in the national capital on the charges of being involved in illegal interception of landline phones of NSE employees. The case had emerged from the original FIR the agency had filed on July 7, to probe the NSE co-location scam.

The CBI alleged that unauthorised recording and monitoring of personal call lines in the NSE started in 1997 when Ravi Narain, the then Managing Director, and Chitra Ramkrishna, the then DMD/Managing Director; of the NSE connected call lines of exchange employees to a digital voice-recorder provided by a private company.

During 1997-2009, Ramkrishna, with the help of NSE employees, allegedly supervised the interception, the CBI charged in an official statement. Later in 2009, the work for monitoring of calls was given to another private company ISEC which was started and run by then Director Sanjay Pandey, the agency elaborated. In order to maintain secrecy, the work order was allegedly issued to the said private company in the name of “conducting periodic study of Cyber Vulnerabilities,” pointed out the CBI.

ISEC purchased and installed 4 X PRI Quad Span Digital Voice Logger at the basement of the NSE in 2012 by splitting the PRI lines of the MTNL, the CBI revealed. “This logger was capable of recording 120 calls simultaneously. The employees of the said private company were given unauthorised access to the NSE premises in a manner to listen to these calls and submit weekly reports to the NSE officials — then Executive Vice-President Ravi Varanasi and then Head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur,” stated the CBI.

The reports, in turn, were being shown on a regular basis to Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna. The work order of the snooping private company was renewed every year from 2009 to 2017.

The CBI said it was found during investigation that the accused Pandey, despite working as police officer, was allegedly managing the affairs of his company. The NSE ended up paying approximately ₹4.54 crore in eight years to ISEC for carrying out illegal interception of the NSE employees, observed the agency. “The call records of hundreds of NSE employees were allegedly kept in the custody of the private company and the entire interception was done without the knowledge or consent of the NSE board and employees,” insisted the agency.

The CBI had arrested Pandey, Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna for their alleged involvement in the scam. Later, the Enforcement Directorate had also taken up the case to probe money laundered out of the phone tapping scam. Pandey and Ramkrishna have got bail in the case.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW