Supreme Court refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court verdict granting bail to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A Amanullah said the observations made by the high court in its December 8 last year judgement granting bail to Pandey will not have any effect during the trial in the case.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) had challenged the high court verdict before the apex court. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, told the bench that the high court had done a mini trial while deciding the bail plea.
Let it be, the bench observed, adding that order granting bail to Pandey was six months old. Raju then requested for a direction that the observations made by the high court should not affect the trial in the case.
Needless to say that the observations made while granting bail will not in any way affect the trial, the bench observed. In its verdict, the high court had observed that Pandey was prima facie not guilty of acquiring or retaining the proceeds of crime.
HC had said while tapping phone lines without consent was prima facie a breach of privacy, the scheduled offences under the under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are not made out and the ED has not substantiated that Pandey derived or obtained any property from a criminal activity.
It has been alleged that the telephone monitoring was carried out by iSec without taking permission of the competent authority as required under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and also without the knowledge or consent of the NSE employees.
The ED alleged the revenue of Rs 4.54 crore generated by iSEC for providing the services constituted the proceeds of crime under the PMLA. Pandey was arrested by the ED on July 19 last year and subsequently sent to judicial custody.