13 July,2022 07:19 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
Sanjay Pandey and his family members were directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, the body responsible for looking after cyber vulnerabilities and risk management audit of National Stock Exchange, before he quit as director in 2006. File pic
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After facing the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the NSE Co-Location scam, former Mumbai police commissioner and former DGP Maharashtra, Sanjay Pandey, is under the scanner for asking Amravati police commissioner to stop investigation of the Anugrah Ponzi scheme case. He had done so during his tenure as DGP Maharashtra. Before his appointment as CP Mumbai this year in February, Pandey was DGP of Maharashtra for 10 months.
Sources said the DGP office may now hold a review of Pandey's order asking Amravati police to stop investigation to look into a possible conflict of interest. "It is very strange that a DGP is directing a commissioner of police to stop enquiry on a complaint against a Ponzi scheme company till further orders," a senior officer of Maharashtra police said.
Sanjay Pandey, former Mumbai police commissioner. File pic
In a letter dated January 21, the DGP office with the approval from then DGP Sanjay Pandey, asked the Amravati police commissioner to stop investigation till further orders regarding the complaint against Anugrah Stock and Broking Pvt. Ltd. and Paresh Mulji Kariya, director of the company. "The Amravati police commissioner is directed to immediately stop enquiry into the complaint till further orders," the letter written in Marathi reads.
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"The inquiry about the Anugrah Ponzi scheme has been put on hold since we received orders from senior officials and till today there have been no further orders," an officer from Amravati police said.
According to sources, "Pandey asked the Amravati police commissioner to hold the investigation after a presentation given by some NSE officials on the case, which was also registered by Mumbai police's economic offences wing. They said they were cooperating with them, and if Amravati police also started issuing summons in the case, it will be difficult for them to visit both places."
"Generally if multiple cases are registered in a similar offence, only the High Court and Supreme Court have the power to club them. But since it's a pan India fraud case, there are going to be multiple FIRs in other states as well," the source added.
The DG office may review the case to look for possible conflict of interest, as the CBI has registered a case against Pandey; and his family members, who are directors of iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, the body responsible for looking after cyber vulnerabilities and risk management audit of National Stock Exchange (NSE). Pandey quit as director in 2006.
The CBI has said that Pandey and his company tapped phones of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees from 2009 to 2017 and gave transcripts to NSE officials who are now accused in the NSE co-location scam. Pandey was also questioned by ED in a money laundering case linked to NSE co-location scam.
According to sources, the Mumbai-based brokerage house Anugrah Stock and Broking Pvt. Ltd. accused of cheating thousands of investors, was also a member of the NSE and Pandey's company was looking after the risk management audit of NSE. After the case was registered by EOW, the director of the company, Paresh Kariya was arrested, and the other accused are still absconding.
Anugrah has duped at least 40,000 investors across the country to the tune of R1,400 crore. The case registered with Mumbai EOW in 2020 was for duping at least 400 investors to the tune of Rs 500 crore.
According to the EOW case, Anugrah along with its associates, were running a Ponzi scheme by luring investors with 12 per cent to 24 per cent returns, but there was never that much profit. "The company used different methods to pay their investors. One of them was by selling shares of clients and the funds received from investors," a EOW officer said. In 2019, the market regulator SEBI banned the broking firm for using clients' share, due to which it started defaulting. The firm also sent false statements to its clients to keep them in the dark. After clients started getting messages about the default, they started checking their CDSL accounts and found that shares are missing. Complaints were then lodged with concerned agencies and police stations. Later EOW took over the case and arrested the director of the company.
Pandey was unavailable for comment.
The NSE co-location scam took place between 2009-2017. A trading member, OPG securities (one of the accused in the FIR), was allegedly provided unfair access by NSE officials. This forced the trading member to log in to the secondary server and get required data before other brokers in the market. The scam was unearthed in 2015 after a whistleblower complained to market regulator SEBI. The CBI has so far arrested Chitra Ramakrishna, former CEO and managing director of NSE, Anand Subramanian former group operating officer of NSE and Sanjay Gupta, owner and promoter of OPG securities private limited in the scam.
