No proof of any pecuniary advantage, HC grants bail to NSE's ex MD in money laundering case [Read Judgment]

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to former NSE Managing Director Chitra Ramakrishna in a money laundering case lodged against her in connection with illegal tapping of phones by abusing her position.

A bench of Jasmeet Singh declared that prima facie no scheduled offences against the applicant are established, the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act cannot be attracted to the present case. The court also said there is no evidence placed on record to prove corruption or abuse of position by the applicant.

After going through the arguments and the materials, the court also pointed out the ingredients of Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act are not made out in the present case as the applicant is not a public servant within the meaning of the law and the NSE is not a public authority.

"The ED has also failed to show how the applicant has obtained for herself or for any other person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage within the meaning of Section 13 of PC Act. There is no evidence placed on record to prove corruption or abuse of position by the applicant," the court said.

With regard to telephone interception contract, the bench said as per the documents, it is observed that NSE was recording conversations since 1997 through other vendors and the transactions with ISEC occurred from 2009 to 2017. The applicant was DMD of NSE till 2010 and JMD till 2013 and MD till 2016.

"As call recording was done by NSE prior to ISEC's involvement, it is wrong to allege that the applicant conspired with ISEC to illegally tap and record calls. Thus, the ingredients of section 120B IPC are not made out in the present case," the bench said.

The court also pointed out pertinently, no victim has been identified by the ED who has suffered a wrongful loss on account of deception or cheating by the applicant.

"Except for a vague and bald averment that customers have been cheated, there is no mention of the names of the persons who have been cheated. Thus, the ingredients of section 420 IPC are not made out in the present case," it added.

Ramakrishna was arrested in the case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate on July 14, 2022, subsequent to CBI registering a regular case. She has already been granted bail in the CBI case by the trial court on December 21, 2022.

It was alleged approximately Rs 4.54 crores was paid by NSE to ISEC for the work between January 01, 2009 to February 13, 2017. The ISEC monitored and intercepted the calls of four MTNL PRI lines, each having capacity of 30 telephone connections used by the employees of NSE. It was also alleged that ISEC submitted the transcripts of conversations to top management of NSE during the period.

In its order, the court asked the applicant to furnish a bail bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties of the like amount and should not contact any of the witnesses and tamper with the evidence.

The court had already granted bail to co-accused former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who had founded the ISEC.

[Read Judgment]