File photo of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Controversial former IPS officer Sanjay Pandey joined the Congress on Thursday.
Pandey, an officer of the 1986-batch of the IPS, had served as director general of police of Maharashtra and commissioner of police in Mumbai.
After his retirement, he was booked in June 2022 by the ED and the CBI in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged illegal phone tapping of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees from 2009 to 2017. As of now, he is in bail.
"I am not joining a party but a family. I wanted to join it in 2004 but didn't get a chance," said Pandey when he joined the Congress in presence of its Mumbai president Prof Varsha Gaikwad.
Pandey said when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (INDIA) comes to power, the common person will not need to fear. “I can say how false cases were filed against me," he said in what was a reference to the Maha Yuti (NDA) rule.
Pandey is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur where he completed his Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science in 1983. Thereafter, he interned at Crompton Greaves in Mumbai.
He joined the IPS in 1986 where he was an assistant superintendent of police and got elevated to the position of superintendent of police in 1990. During the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai, he was a deputy commissioner of police. As DCP, he was shifted to the Economic Offences Wing when he unearthed the infamous cobbler scam.
Pandey went for further education to the USA where he completed a degree of Master of Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. After he returned in 1999, he spearheaded a project of setting up a networked system for the police force. In 2000, he resigned from the police. He then worked as global head, Cyber Security Practice at Tata Consultancy Services. Pandey founded iSec Securities Private Ltd in 2003 which was an Information security consulting company when he was hired by the NSE. In 2011, he returned to the police force. When the MVA government, headed by Uddhav Thackeray came to power, he became the head of Maharashtra police and later Mumbai police. During the Lok Sabha polls, he wanted to contest as an Independent, however, later backed out. He is expected to contest the Vidhan Sabha polls.