The Delhi High Court on Thursday, 9 February, granted bail to former National Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO Chitra Ramakrishna in a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged illegal phone tapping of NSE employees.
Ramakrishna, who is already on bail in the CBI case related to the alleged illegal phone tapping, was denied bail by the Rouse Avenue Court last year in the ED case.
The court had at the time observed that tapping phone lines or recording calls without the concerned individual's consent is a breach of privacy as under Article 21 of the Constitution.
What's The Case?
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a money laundering complaint against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former NSE top bosses Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in connection with the alleged illegal phone tapping case of the stock exchange employees.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that Narain and Ramkrishna, both former chief executives of the National Stock Exchange, had roped in a company founded by retired IPS officer Pandey to snoop on the stock market employees by illegally intercepting their phones calls.
The CBI and the ED, have named Pandey, his Delhi-based company iSEC Services Pvt. Ltd, NSE's former MD and CEOs Narain and Ramkrishna, executive vice president Ravi Varanasi and head (premises) Mahesh Haldipur, among others, in their respective complaints.
The ED has been probing if any proceeds of crime were generated through this alleged illegal act and the accused laundered public funds.
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