Abdul Karim Telgi was named in several cases, but continued with his activities: Former investigating officer

Telgi, who was convicted in connection with several cases and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment in total, died in Bengaluru on Thursday while still serving his jail term.

After running his operation with impunity for over a decade, Telgi’s downfall began in 2002, following investigations conducted by Pune Police. As the massive scale of his operations gradually came to light, Pune Police formed several teams to collect evidence from different places.

Retired IPS officer and former Maharashtra Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif was the officer overseeing these investigations. “I was the coordinating officer of the investigation teams. During the probe, it became known that Telgi was named in forgery offences registered at various police stations since 1993. In some cases, he had been arrested in the past, while in other cases, he was wanted and absconding. I started zeroing in on these old cases against Telgi to know how, despite being named in several offences in the past, he had continued with his activities. His operations were so wide, and spread across so many places, that the case had to be handed over to the CBI. My association with the case ended after that,” Mushrif told The Indian Express.

Booked in multiple cases across 11 states, Telgi had reportedly developed a nexus with government officers while running the scam, and the names of several top police officials and politicians had cropped up during the investigations.

In July 2007, Special Judge Chitra Bhedi in Pune sentenced Telgi to 13 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of over Rs 202 crore on him after convicting him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and Section 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, in the case registered with Bund Garden police station in 2002. The court had also awarded punishment to 43 other accused in this case. Most of the accused were persons employed by Telgi for selling fake stamp papers.

Before the verdict, Telgi had pleaded guilty, reportedly following the advice of his wife Shahida.

In June 2011, another special court in Pune had sentenced Telgi to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment, and imposed a fine of Rs 17.05 lakh, in a separate fake stamp paper scam case registered against him at the Mulund police station, Mumbai, in 2005.