New Delhi: The Delhi High Court granted bail to former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Managing Director and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) related to the alleged illegal phone tapping of employees.
The ED in September last year, had filed a charge sheet in the Rouse Avenue Courts in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to phone tapping of NSE employees between 2009 and 2017.
The charge sheet was filed against NSE’s Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey.
Ramkrishna, who is already on bail in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s case, was granted bail by Justice Jasmeet Singh. Last year in August, Rouse Avenue Courts had denied her bail in the ED’s case. A copy of the detailed order is awaited.
Justice Singh had observed that phone tapping or recording calls without the individual’s permission is “breach of privacy”. He had mentioned that tapping phone lines or recording calls without consent violates the right to privacy according to Article 21 of the Constitution.
The ED had claimed that Pandey received Rs 4.54 crore to tap the MTNL lines to help Ramkrishna and these were proceeds of crime.
