Telgi Scams

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Telgi scams

According 2 tyms of india

Telgi scam amounts to just Rs 172 cr: Probe

PTI Apr 16, 2006, 12.01pm IST

NEW DELHI: After nearly two years of probe into what was

once touted as the 'mother-of-all-scams', money involved in the

entire fake stamp paper case masterminded by Abdul Karim

Telgi amounted to only Rs 172 crore and not to Rs 30,000 crore

as speculated when the case first came to light.

Investigations carried out by a team of the CBI, Income Tax,

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Enforcement Directorate

and the Reserve Bank of India have revealed that the financial

magnitude of the entire scam was only Rs 172 crore.

This was conveyed to the Union Home Ministry in a report

submitted by the various agencies here this week giving anupdate on the status of the 48 cases which were registered in

2004 based on directions from the Supreme Court.

Mumbai

Police recover fake stamps worth Rs 66 lakh

Mohamed Thaver, Hindustan Times

Mumbai, August 18, 2011
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Eight years after the fake stamp paper scam involving Abdul

Karim Telgi rocked the country and lead to several high-profile

arrests, the Ghatkopar police, on Tuesday, arrested two

persons with fake stamp fee tickets worth Rs 66.6 lakh. Police

suspect these were printed during the Telgi scam.

We suspect that the fake stamp fee worth Rs 66.6 lakh

recovered from the two accused was printed by the cartel headed

by Abdul Karim Telgi. The package was dumped in a garbage

bin at Opera House in 2003, following a heavy crackdown on

the network, said police inspector R Kothmire from Ghatkoparpolice station.

Acting on a tip off, police arrested 45-year-old Rakesh Choksi,

an estate agent from Vile Parle with fake stamp fee.

We arrested Chokshi after we found several fake stamps worth

Rs 4.5 lakh. Following this, we raided his plush Juhu residence

from where fake stamps and revenue bills worth Rs 62.1 lakhwere recovered, Kothmire said. The police later arrested his

accomplice and a sweeper in the Opera House area, identified as

Raju Kondar.

Kondar has been working as a sweeper in the Opera House area

for a decade while Choksi worked there till 2003 as a diamond

polisher. Every night, Kondar would search for diamonds in the

garbage bin that may have reached there accidentally, and pass

them to Choksi, who would sell them and share the profit withKondar, said sub-inspector Vikram Bansode.


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In 2003, when Kondar was searching for diamonds in the bin, hefound packets of new stamp tickets dumped there. Choksi knew

the stamps were fake. He planned to sell them a few years later,

once the crackdown on Telgi's network eased off and share thespoils with Kondar, added Kothmire.

A few months ago, Choksi decided to sell the stamps. Though

the format of several stamps had been changed following the

Telgi scam, these stamps could be used for forging old

documents, added Kothmire. Choksi was on his way to sell the

stamps when he was arrested. The duo have been booked on

charges of counterfeiting, possessing and selling governmentstamp; cheating and forgery.

Telgi scam effectBanks to source stamp paper from

treasury

Sarbajeet K. Sen

New Delhi , Dec. 10

THE Telgi stamp paper scam is forcing public sector banks on a

state of alert to avoid getting trapped in the muddle.


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Shunning their earlier practice of allowing outsiders to source

stamp papers for executing loan agreements, banks are now

advising their officials to ensure that the purchase of such papers

are made by its own staff directly from the treasury.Earlier, it was common practice for most banks to ask the

customers, with whom loan agreements were to be signed, to

source the stamp paper on which the deed were to be executed.

However, revelation of the magnitude of the scam is now

forcing them to exercise caution.

"The practice of bank managers asking customers to bring thestamp paper has to end. We have advised our officials to ensure

that our representatives themselves purchase the stamp papers

from the treasury," the Chairman and Managing Director of a

bank said.

A senior official of another bank agreed. "We were not very

particular about where the stamp paper was purchased andmostly left it up to the customer to bring them for signing the

loan agreement. After the scam we have to be more careful," he

said.

However, despite being a heavy user of stamp papers, the

banking sector has managed to remain unaffected by the several

thousand crore parallel fake stamp paper market that has been in

existence for several years now.

In fact, the Government has recently given a clean chit to the

banks over speculations that some of them had been holding

fake papers with them.


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In a reply in Parliament last week, the Government has said

"according to information received from the Reserve Bank of

India, no bank has reported about seizure of fake stamp papers

from them."However, bankers said that they are not unduly worried over the

possibility of previous agreements having been executed on fake

stamp papers. "The opinion we have got is that even if the

transaction had been executed on fake paper it does not negate

the legal validity of the transaction. It was in any case difficult

to identify a fake stamp paper since even the security features

had been copied," the bank chief said.

The Ministry of Finance had recently said that it was studying

the legal implications of such transactions. The Ministry has also

said that it has recently decided to introduce a set of new

security features in non-judicial stamp papers that would make it

difficult to counterfeit.

The Government has also asked States to verify the stocks ofstamp papers with authorised vendors so as to ensure that the

fake ones are not put into circulation

Telgi names Sharad Pawar in scam

ibnlive.com

Updated Sep 07, 2006 at 11:31am IST

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New Delhi: Abdul Karim Telgi, the main accused in the multi-

crore fake stamp paper scandal, has named Union Agriculture

Minister Sharad Pawar during investigation.

Telgi also accused former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra

Chhagan Bhujbal and former Karnataka tourism minister

Roshan Baig of involvement in the scam. The special

investigation team investigating the scandal has questioned Baig

before.

Telgi made these disclosures during a narco analysis test in

Bangalore in 2003. In a videotape of the narco analysis test,

Telgi is heard answering questions put by investigators.

"Mr Pawar, Mr Bhujbal," he tells the investigators. Politicians

are the backbone of this business, he is heard saying.
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Pawar denied the allegations, saying that he had nothing to do

with Telgi. Pawar, who is also the chief of NCP, said Telgi had

just taken his name and didnt accuse him

of wrongdoing. Telgi Verbatim

Question: Who are

the politicians?

Telgi: Sharad Pawar,

Bhujbal.

Question: Tell meabout the politicians.

Telgi: Politicians are

the backbone of this

business.

Question: Who has

threatened you?

Telgi: Threatening istheresomebody

will kill me.

Question: In

Karnataka?

Telgi: In Karnataka I

cannot name, because

I have told everything

to the boss... still


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Pawar claimed that it was Bhujbal whohad got Telgi exposed and thats why he

was framing the politician. The minister said he didnt associate

with third-class log.In August, CNN-IBN had aired tapes in which Telgi accused top

Maharashtra and Karnataka politicians of involvement in the

scam.

Telgi was arrested in 1991 for printing and selling fake stamp

papers -- his monthly profits from the scam were esitmated to be

Rs 100 crore.On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation approached a

Delhi court seeking permission to question Telgis six close

aides who are lodged in jails.

The CBI sought a common direction to Chandigarh, Banglore

and Pune prison officials that it be allowed to interrogate six

persons in jails.

FAKE STAMP PAPER SCAM

The Telgi scam involving the sale of fake

stamp papers is probably one of the biggest

scams unearthed in the country.

Telgi printed fake stamp papers worth

thousands of crores of rupees using printing

machines purchased illegally with the help of

some officials of the Central Government's

security printing press in Nashik.

there are no arrests.


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From 1995 to 2003, when the fake stamp paper

scam broke, an estimated Rs 30,000 crore worth

of fake stamp papers had been sold across seven

states including Maharashtra and AndhraPradesh.

Telgi used the money from the sale of the fake

stamp papers to bribe Government and police

officials

Who are the politicians involved in Telgi scam?

Author: N. P. Phadnis

Publication: Free Press Journal

Date: November 25, 2003

URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/251103-features.html

As expected the CBI has taken over investigations into the multi-crore fake stamp scam, which is spread to almost entire countryexcept Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Political considerationsplayed heavily when two major states where the scam originatedopposed the proposal to hand over the investigations to the CBI.It was just a matter of time before the CBI took over the

investigations of a chain of operations spread over last decade.However, Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde anddeputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal strongly opposed handingover the investigation to the CBI claiming that the BJP would useit against the Congress and the NCP.


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Karnataka chief minister S.M.Krishna also supported the move tooppose the CBI and the Congress high command also aired similarviews not realizing that they were falling into the trap.

Unfortunately the political leadership of both these states failed tounderstand the gravity of the situation and the reach of the culpritsinvolved in the fake stamp scam. It was not merely the question ofhow much money Abdul Karim Telgi and his henchmen made andhow much loot they shared with police officers, security pressofficials, politicians and others to cover up their misdeeds.

It now appears that more than the BJP leadership which was

obviously curious to know what exactly transpired and how it wasexecuted and who were involved in cover-up operations, it was thecentral agencies, which were clearly disturbed over thedevelopments. The tapes reluctantly handed over by the Karnatakapolice to Maharashtra police at the instance of the Mumbai highcourt throws light on how a well oiled network of operativescontrolled by Telgi could influence the state government, theNashik security press, police and politicians.

It was not merely the case of a few intelligent people joining handsto make a fast buck by producing fake stamp papers but themoney generated played havoc with the system. The question mostof the Central agencies asked each other was where is the moneysupposed to be to the tune of Rs 39,000 crores gone. Obviously,this kind of money is not used for any charitable work, or for anydevelopmental work but will be used decisively for subversion

which poses a threat to the national security. Part of this money issupposed to have been used for recent bomb blasts and thereappears to be a link between Telgi's network and the terrorists'outfit.


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This presents a horrible picture. Just imagine, top police officialson the Telgi's list of beneficiaries, could be used without anyimpunity to cover up other acts of sabotage and terrorism. Even

before the case is handed over formally by the Central governmentto the Central Bureau of investigation, top sleuths of theseagencies were already on job gathering more information on thescam. The worst fear of the CBI and other intelligence agencies isthe possibility of a link between the Indian underworld based inDubai and the fake stamp paper scam.

CBI director P C Sharma minced no words when he announced

that the agency was looking into the ramifications of the scandalfrom the national security angle as the money involved in the scamcould be much more than the Rs 39,000 crore already estimated. Afruit vendor from Khanapur village in Karnataka cannot rise tosuch a level without outside help. He has been indulging in smalltime operations of fake stamp till 1995, but later he got reallyorganised in a big way with the assistance from outside agencies.When it comes to finding out links between Telgi and the terrorists

outfit, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) comes into the picture. As faras laundering of such huge funds is concerned, obviously theDirectorate of Enforcement comes into and with this backdrop,there was actually no case for either the Maharashtra or theKarnataka government to oppose CBI investigations.

Shinde has accepted the CBI role but felt that early approval mighthave further demoralized the police officers that were involved in

the meticulous job of investigating the Telgi case. It is just a matterof days now that the CBI takes over the entire case as the agencyhas already registered three cases in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi andGujarat. The Congress leadership in Maharashtra as well asKarnataka was apprehensive about the role of the CBI at the initial


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stages as it felt that with the five states going to polls by thismonth end, the CBI might initiate action against some majorfunctionaries of the party.

The Congress high command also approved the stand initially,which was also supported by Pawar- led NCP. However, whenPawar realized the futility of the stand, he quickly shifted his standand announced his willingness to hand over the entireinvestigation to the CBI. He was convinced that the state alone isnot at all in a position to take on such a gigantic operation ofunearthing the real nature of Telgi scam.

In fact a few top Congress leaders had warned against such a rigidstand but they were ignored. When they were given a chance topresent their viewpoint it was too late as by then Pawar had alreadytaken a Uturn. They had suggested that instead of handing overthe investigation to the CBI, a special task force of Centralagencies including CBI, IB, RAW, revenue intelligence, state policeshould be set up for better coordination and investigation into the

scam. Ultimately the party has to take into consideration thepolitical impact of the investigation and at the same time could notavoid its responsibility in cooperating with the Central agencies.

So far the Special Investigation Team has arrested and interrogatedtop police officials who took money from Telgi and hisaccomplices to ignore fake stamp cases or provide him shelter.However, so far there is no mention of names of politicians. It is

common knowledge that unless there is support from the politicalestablishment, it is not possible either for the police or for theTelgi network to work without any impunity. The question nowdiscussed in political circles is who are the politicians who arebehind providing protection to Telgi.


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Two MLAs, one from Maharashtra and another from Karnatakaare already behind bars and they are being investigated by SIT. Thetapes with the SIT will now provide the real evidence against the

politicians who were really in touch with Telgi. The Karnatakapolice have done a wonderful job by taping Telgi's conversationswith his operators as well as all those officers and politicians whohelped him. These conversations were recorded when Telgi waslanguishing in Karnataka jail. Neither he nor those who talked tohim were aware that they were being watched.

Now these tapes and voices on these tapes will decide the fate of

many small and big political leaders. It will not be possible foranyone whether in state government or Central agencies to shieldanyone. With the CBI taking over investigations, the Centralgovernment as well as the state governments will be aware of whoare the real culprits. With so much of evidence, which will be latercorroborated by income tax and other agencies, no one should beable to get off the noose. Involved politicians from Maharashtraare worried about Telgi tapes.

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Telgi scam probe may have been an eyewash, reveal court

papers

Published: Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 8:23 IST | Updated:

Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 9:16 ISTByMK Madhusoodan| Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Abdul Karim Telgi

Probe into the fake stamp paper rackets kingpin Abdul Kareem

Lad Sab Telgis conversations from his jail cell have thrown up

several flaws which have helped little for the court to get to thebottom of it.

The verdict on the criminal case registered by stamp paper

investigation team (StampIT) investigating into multi-crore fake

stamp paper scam with Madivala police in 2002 clearly shows

flaws in the probe into the case. DNA is in exclusive possession

of court documents with observations about these flaws. It raises

serious questions on whether these shortcomings in theinvestigations were intentional to save the high and mighty

involved in it.

The case was registered after the StampIT tapped Telgis 1,400
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telephonic conversations between July 27, 2002, and October 5,

2002, with his associates on the illegal business of fake stamps

and stamp papers. Pointing out that the flaws in the probe were

intentionally done by StampIT to save the high and mighty, itwas stated that the FIR had shown the date and time of the crime

was between 10 am on July 27, 2002, and 6pm on October 5,

2002.

The complaint was filed by the investigating officer of the rank

of inspector who worked under StampIT chief R Srikumar, who

was then the additional director general of police.

The flaw in the complaintWhen the first information report (FIR) was filed before the

police under crime No 1100/2002 on October 10, the StampIT

claimed that Telgi, who was lodged in jail as an undertrial

prisoner, was indulging in illegal activities of sale and

circulation of fake stamps in Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and

other places using mobile phones. The copies of judgement inthe case by XXXV additional city civil and sessions court judge

and the designated CBI court reveal that the interception of

Telgis mobile conversation was done after obtaining permission

from the then home secretary.

However, the first request for permission was made on July 1,

2002, and the second is dated September 25, 2002. From the

udgement, it is not clear as to how many days permission wasgranted to tap Telgis phones.

The home secretary, who is authorised to grant the permission,

was also not examined in the court to confirm the authenticity of

the letters granting permission. This showed that the police


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complaint on October 6, 2002, was not clear on whether the

phone-tapping was done from July 1, 2002.

Under the provisions of Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, phone-tapping is not allowed for more than a period of three months at

a time.

More flawsIt was clear from StampITs probe that there was no proof on a

prescribed legal procedure. It was not clear on whether the

tapping was done in the period mentioned or whether the

original recordings were tampered with.

It was stated that the recordings of the conversation between

Telgi and his associates were kept in the custody of the StampIT

officers from the date of filing a complaint till the chargesheet

was filed. The judgement does not reveal that the tapes were

played in the open court. The tape counters showing the duration

of each mobile conversation were also not provided by the

StampIT to prove that the tapes were not tampered with.

What does the complaint say?The complaint before the Madivala police says: Telgi and his

associates also carried out their illegal activities at Chandigarh.

In fact, Chandigarh police had arrested some of Telgis

associates on a tip-off on July 27, 2002, and seized Rs2 crore

worth fake stamp papers, and a case was registered againstTelgis associates. Telgi is also an accused in the case...

However, a reading of the FIR filed by Chandigarh police in this

connection does not reveal the case was registered based on a tipoff by the StampIT, who were reportedly tapping Telgis mobile


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conversation. And to confirm this, the chargesheet in the

Madivala case filed by the CBI, which took over investigation in

March 2004, stated that Telgi was not made an accused in the

case filed by Chandigarh police.

Involvement of jail staff not provedAs contended by the StampIT, Nanjappa, the then assistant

superintendent of prisons was arrested in connection with the

same for facilitating Telgi to use a mobile phone to continue his

illegal fake stamp paper business. When Nanjappa approached

the I Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) for

bail, the objection filed by StampIT officer and the specialpublic prosecutor said: A TV was kept switched on throughout

the day so that the warders at the prison could not hear what washappening inside.

The prosecution was arguing that the special cell of Telgi was

having a TV set with its volume turned up so that others cannot

hear what was happening inside. Such being the case, thetelephonic conversation between Telgi and his associates should

have had distortions as it interfered with the TV programmes.

The transcript of conversations from page 430 to 621 in the

udgement does not contain any material from TV telecast. The

fact that the tapes remained with the investigating officer till

written statements are filed on January 9, 2004. The tapes should

have been kept in court custody soon after the case was filed.

This questions the originality of the tapes.

No original tape given to CFSL, Delhi for transcripts?The delay in submitting the original tapes also gives a scope of

suspicion on the authenticity of the contents. Each cassettes


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containing the taped conversation, total 49 cassettes, must havecontained material from the TV broadcast, the judgement

stated. The tapes remained with the investigating officer all

along. If each cassette was kept in the custody of the court assoon as the cassettes were finished, there could not have been

any scope for doubt over its authenticity. A comparison of voice

on the recorded tape with the sample voice of the accused by the

central forensic sciences laboratory (CFSL) at Delhi would not

have been accurate

Telgi scam probe may have been an eyewash, reveal courtpapers

Published: Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 8:23 IST | Updated:

Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 9:16 IST

ByMK Madhusoodan| Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Abdul Karim Telgi

Page 2 of 2 (Jump to page 1)

Conversation was on transfersThe investigating officer in his statement of objections said: An
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accused in the case, Ali Iliyas, contacted jail official Nanjappa

over phone and told him to inform Telgi to contact him

immediately. Telgi contacted Ali Iliyas immediately and the

conversation was on the transfer of another jail official,Jayasimha.

On page 885 of the judgment, it is recorded: In this connection

it was relied upon the evidence of the investigating officer who

heard the conversation of the accused Nanjappa and Ali Iliyas.

No such audio cassette was forthcoming to show that Ali Iliyas

spoke to Nanjappa only to inform that he wanted to talk to Telgi.

There is no such aspect forthcoming from scientific officer DKTanwar of CFSL and his report regarding the identification of

Nanjappas voice, the judgment said.

Statement of accused jail staff delayedIn Para 193 of the deposition of the investigating officer

recorded by the court, the officer stated that it was only on

December 8, 2003 that he sent a letter to deputy inspectorgeneral of prisons to send a guard register for the period of July

1 till August 21, 2002. The accused jail staffers, Jayasimha and

Nanjappa, were arrested on December 9, 2003 by the StampIT

sleuths.

A day prior to the arrest of these two the investigating officer

sent a request for guard register. This is a case where the two

accused were first arrested and later the evidence was sought tobe collected to fix culpability as evident from para 197 of the

statement recorded by the court.

No mention of another accused jail staffOne of the members of the jail staff who was examined by the


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investigating officer was Sridhara Murthy. He was found to be

the person who destroyed various records relating to the officials

deputed for duty to guard the prison cell from where Telgi was

reported to have made illegal mobile calls. He should have beencharged as an accused for having destroyed valuable evidence.

But, StampIT treated him as a witness for the prosecution. At

the trial, he could not answer questions raised during cross

examination and he was treated as hostile witness.

In the endThe designated court acquitted 11 persons including Jayasimha

and Nanjappa, staff of Bangalore Central Prison accused ofhelping Telgi to run the racket from the prison in September this

year. The counsel for Telgi had claimed that the conviction will

be challenged in the high court.

Totally nine cases were registered in the state against multi-

crore fake stamp paper scam kingpin Telgi of which he had been

convicted in six cases. In one case, the conviction by the specialcourt was quashed by the High Court last year. He was acquitted

by the special court in two other cases. There are 42 cases

pending against Telgi across the country.

Srikumar is now CVCR Srikumar, who served as the Karnataka police chief and also

as the chief of StampIT was appointed as Commissioner in the

Central Vigilance Commission in September this year.Questions are now being raised in the police circles whether he

was rewarded for manipulating Telgis conversation which were

tapped.
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Music release of Kannada fil

Documents

Telgi Scams