The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate on a bail application filed by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a case about the alleged tapping of phones of the National Stock Exchange employees, PTI reported.

Panday’s firm, iSec Services, allegedly received a contract of Rs 4.45 crore to snoop on National Stock Exchange employees between 2009 and 2017, the Enforcement Directorate said, India Today reported. The National Stock Exchange co-location scam took place in the same period before it was exposed in 2015.

The co-location scam pertains to allegations of preferential access to the National Stock Exchange trading platform that allowed certain brokers to trade before the markets opened. The first FIR in the case was filed in 2018. Former National Stock Exchange chiefs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain were arrested in March in relation to the case.

On July 19, Pandey was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is also investigating Pandey for tapping phones. The agency has alleged that iSec Services conspired with other accused persons to illegally intercept the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited lines at the trading platform between and recorded calls of the National Stock Exchange employees. As per norms, the permission of a competent authority is required under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act for telephone monitoring.

On Tuesday, a bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh directed the Enforcement Directorate to file a status report on the case.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Pandey, requested the Delhi High Court list the bail hearing at a sooner date as the former police commissioner is a senior citizen. He was denied bail on August 4.

Rohatgi also contended that the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation be quashed as no offence, as alleged by the agency, is found against Pandey. Rohatgi said that the first information report has been registered only to fulfil a political vendetta against his client.

The judge also sought a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation on separate pleas filed by Pandey and iSec Services seeking directions to quash the first information report registered against him by the agency.

The matter will be next heard in September.