Mumbai Inspector General of Police Shridhar Vagal, who was arrested on Friday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the multi-crore counterfeit stamp paper racket, was today sent to custody till November 13.Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare alleged that Vagal had received an amount of Rs 72 lakh from Telgi through Assistant-Inspector Dilip Kamat of the Crime Branch. He also accused Vagal of abetting the activities of the Telgi racket and conspiring with the accused to prepare false reports after the recovery of counterfeit stamp papers worth Rs 820 crore. Vagal, who was calm throughout the arguments of the prosecution and defence, later made an oral submission to the court, pleading innocence. In his 30 minute submission he said he had ‘‘left no stone unturned to get Telgi’’ and alleged that his arrest was an attempt to humiliate him.Pleading that Vagal was innocent, the defence lawyers alleged that the prosecution’s charge was based on prepositions of possibilities and theories. Pointing out that Vagal was JCP only between April 18, 2002 and March 3, 2003, they said that he couldn’t be held responsible for negligence of his predecessors and that he had acted as per rules governing the functioning of a JCP.
