The Rouse Avenue District Court of Delhi on Monday dismissed the bail petition of former National Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of employees of the leading stock exchange in the country. Chitra Ramkrishna’s bail petition has been decided to be dismissed by Special Judge Sunena Sharma. Earlier, the court had refused to grant bail to the former Mumbai Police Commissioner, Sanjay Pandey, in the same case. The ED, while opposing the bail plea of Ramkrishna, argued that “investigation is confirmed in the matter and she was directly or indirectly indulging in or knowingly assisted in and was actually involved in all processes or activity connected with the proceeds of crime, including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and further in projecting or claiming it as untainted property.”
The ED lawyer had earlier also submitted that it is important to further determine the roles of Ramkrishna as well as the roles of various other people who facilitated the offence of money laundering and to determine the entire modus operandi employed for the generation of proceeds of crime and projection thereof as licit payment for the “Periodic Study of Cyber Vulnerabilities” of NSE, it said.
The ED lawyer earlier, while seeking custodial interrogation, submitted that custodial Chitra Ramkrishna is essential to establish the money trail of proceeds of crime as well as projection thereof, as she may be required to be confronted with the other suspects named in the impugned FIR. The lawyer said she is also required to be confronted with various documents collected during the course of the investigation, the lawyer said.