Phone tapping of NSE employees: CBI books ex-Mumbai top cop, Ramkrishna

Former top brass of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), led by Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, had allegedly engaged a company founded by retired Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to snoop on the bourse’s employees and illegally intercepted their phone calls between 2009 and 2017, according to people privy to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) fresh probe.

The federal agency has filed a new criminal case against Ramkrishna, Narain, Pandey, and others, and named them as accused. The case was registered based on instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The accused will soon be called for questioning in the matter, sources indicated. Ramkrishna is currently in judicial custody in the NSE co-location scam.

Pandey’s iSec Securities, a security audit firm, had allegedly entered into an agreement with Ramkrishna and Narain to provide the transcripts of all incoming and outgoing calls of the NSE’s board members and key managerial personnel such as chief financial officer, business development officer, and regulatory officer during the period. In return, iSec was allegedly paid Rs 4.45 crore by them.

iSec was taken aboard for conducting a “periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities” at the NSE, according to a CBI official. The probe agency has alleged that under the guise of this study, top officials of the NSE had issued a work order in favour of iSec for intercepting the phone calls of its employees by installing machines at the NSE office.

“This is in contravention of provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act. No permission for this activity was taken from the competent authority. Neither any consent taken from the employees of the bourse,” the official said.

Following the fresh revelations, the CBI carried out an extensive search operation on Friday, covering 18 locations, including the residences of Pandey, Ramakrishna, and Narain in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Kota, and Chandigarh.

Ramakrishna quit as chief executive officer in December 2016, while Narain stepped down as chairman and board member in June 2017.

Ramkrishna and Narain have been under investigation by the CBI in the co-location case, in which some brokers, in connivance with some officials of the NSE, allegedly got unfair access to the bourses, helping them book huge profits.

The CBI, which had initiated the investigation in 2018, arrested Ramkrishna and NSE’s former group operating officer Anand Subramanian and filed a chargesheet in the matter a few months ago. Earlier this week, Pandey had appeared before the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money-laundering aspect of the co-location case.

iSec Securities under scanner

Pandey, who retired as Mumbai police commissioner on June 30, had incorporated iSec in 2001 (he was not in the service then). Later in 2006, he quit the directorship of the firm and named his mother and son as directors. The company was doing a security audit of the NSE and brokers involved in the co-location matters. Sources said the firm never detected the breaches in the NSE system. The firm had conducted security audits at the NSE during 2010-2015, when the co-location scam surfaced and a probe had been started.

In the dock

• iSec Services was engaged in the guise of conducting ‘periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities’ at NSE
• NSE issued work orders in favour of the security audit firm to install machines to tap phones 
• Calls of NSE board members, key management personnel were transcribed and submitted to the former brass 
• CBI alleges contravention of Indian Telegraph Act