CDR scam: Mumbai woman detective gets bail, actor yet to be quizzed

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s name too cropped up in the CDR scam

The Thane sessions court on Monday granted bail to the country’s first woman detective, who was arrested by Thane crime branch on February 2 in the call data record (CDR) scam.

Rajani Pandit, 65, will be released from jail on a bond of Rs20,000. (Praful Gangurde/ht)

Rajani Pandit, 65, has been a private detective for 32 years. Her bail pleas had been deferred twice.

Pandit will be released from jail on a bond of Rs20,000, said the order came from AS Bhaisare.

Pandit’s advocate Poonam Jadhav said, “Pandit was given bail today. It was found that she had neither purchased nor sold any CDRs to anyone. Pandit, who has won an highest civilian award, has health issues.”

On January 24, four private detectives were arrested by Thane crime branch for allegedly selling call data records (CDR).

They used to sell the data for Rs25,000 to Rs50,000. Makesh Pandiyan,42, Prashant Palekar,49, Jigar Makawana,35, and Samresh Jha alias Pratik Mohpal,32, were arrested from Kalwa.

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s name too cropped up in the CDR scam. He had been summoned to the police station on Friday but did not turn up.

Senior police inspector from Thane crime branch (unit 1) Nitin Thakare said, “Bail has been granted to Rajani Pandit. But, further probe is on. We had also summoned Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, his wife and lawyer to record their statements.”

Eleven people, including a police constable from Yavatmal, have been arrested in CDR scam so far.