Mumbai, Sep 19 : A controversial former IPS officer Sanjay Pandey took the political plunge by joining the Congress on Thursday but remained non-committal on his plans to contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.





In June 2022, post-retirement, he was booked by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with an alleged case of money laundering linked with the purported illegal phone-tapping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) officials from 2009-2017.



Soon after joining the Congress in the presence of Mumbai President Varsha Gaikwad, MP, Pandey said: 'I am not joining a political party, but a family' I am a secularist and believe in the Congress ideology. I wanted to join the party 20 years ago, but didn't get the opportunity.'



To a question, he said that he was not trying to avoid the cases filed against him adding, 'Since those matters are sub-judice, it would be inappropriate to comment on them.'



About his plans to contest the Assembly elections, he said that it would be up to the party leaders to decide on this, and the cases against him have no bearing on the party.



However, he exuded confidence that after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) returns to power, 'the common man will have no need to fear'.



Welcoming him to the party, Gaikwad said that in his entire career, Pandey was a beacon of honesty and integrity, who always prioritised democracy and constitutional morality, and even under severe pressures of facing politically motivated charges by the BJP, he remained committed to truth and justice.



An IIT-Kanpur graduate in Computer Science (1983), followed by a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, Pandey, 62, worked in the private sector and later joined the state police as an IPS officer of the 1986 batch.



Among his major assignments were heading the Economic Offences Wing, when he exposed the massive 'cobblers scam', then served as the Mumbai Commissioner of Police, besides later as the state Director General of Police.



Enjoying the image of an upright and no-nonsense officer, he quit the IPS in 2000 and worked in top positions with multinationals for several years before returning to the police force in 2011.



When the MVA government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray came to power in November 2019, Pandey was later appointed the city and state police chief.



/IANS