As a dazed police force watched, Mumbai police commissioner R S Sharma was called in for questioning on his role in what is perhaps the largest crime and corruption scandal India has ever seen.It came just a day after the arrest of Inspector General of Police Sridhar Vagal for watering down charges against counterfeiter Abdul Karim Telgi and allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 72 lakh.Sharma—just 20 days away from retirement—was grilled over two sessions at the headquarters of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) tasked by the Bombay High Court to inquire whether or not he was involved with the counterfeiter.So what is Sharma’s role in the Telgi case?• Sharma was Pune police commissioner in 2002, when investigating officer and then Additional Commissioner of Police S M Mushrif accused officers in Sharma’s team of dropping the names of five accused from the chargesheet and adding five others—ostensibly to extort money from Telgi.• When the SIT took over investigation, its then chief, Subodh Kumar Jaiswal—who with present team leader, retired DG S S Puri, questioned Sharma on Saturday—recommended action against the police commissioner.• ‘‘Assistant Commissioner of Police M C Mulani (now arrested) an official with doubtful integrity was continuing with the investigations,’’ Jaiswal’s report said earlier this year. ‘‘Government should initiate appropriate action against him (Sharma) for his acts of omission and commission.’’• Earlier in October 2002, Sharma actually recommended Mulani and another officer for felicitation on their investigations into Telgi, though they were later arrested for accepting bribes from the stamp-paper scamster. Mulani and ten others were felicitated that month by Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal.The SIT has until November 12 to report to the High Court whether the city’s top police officer was involved in a scandal that has shredded the reputation of the force.‘‘It (the questioning) was on the period when I was police commissioner of Pune,’’ a calm Sharma said as his personal car, a black Indica, waded slowly through a scrum of reporters and cameras at SIT headquarters in Worli.The questioning is likely to continue on Sunday, SIT sources said.Meanwhile, IGP Vagal—with a masters in nuclear physics from IIT Mumbai and a business management degree from IIM Ahmedabad—spent Saturday night in a Pune jail before being produced before a Pune court where the SIT requested custody. Police today seized five guns, which they suspect to be unlicensed, from Vagal’s residence.As of Saturday, 58 people, including 12 policemen and two MLAs (one from Maharashtra, another from Andhra Pradesh), had been arrested in the Telgi scam. Telgi, a former travel agent from Belgaum, Karnataka, built a sprawling seven-state empire of crime that printed and distributed fake revenue stamps and stamp paper.When the law finally caught up with Telgi in 2002, his vast wealth was used to pay off policemen and politicians. Most of the policemen arrested are from Mumbai’s crime branch.Investigations under the direction of the Bombay High Court are continuing. It’s likely that bigger names will tumble out once transcripts of phone-taps made by the Karnataka police of conversations between Telgi and policemen and politicians are presented before the court.
