Paper Chase

IN June 2002, the Pune police detected the multi-crore fake stamp and stamp paper racket that had been active in several states including Ma...

IN June 2002, the Pune police detected the multi-crore fake stamp and stamp paper racket that had been active in several states including Maharashtra and Karnataka. In the last three years, 67 people including alleged mastermind Abdul Karim Telgi, top police officers and politicians have been arrested. One of the accused has died, four granted bail and 62 are still in prison. However, three years after the first arrests were made, trial in the case is yet to begin.

Special public prosecutor Raja Thakare concedes that there has been inordinate delay. He pins it down to time-consuming investigation and legal procedures. 8216;8216;Except for arrest of an absconding accused, the investigations are now over. The main hitch in commencement of trial is a number of petitions and bail applications which are pending in various courts and have to be disposed off before the trial begins,8217;8217; he says.

IT all began on June 7, 2002, when a police team led by Inspector Prakash Deshmukh made some arrests near the Pune railway station on a tip off. They recovered fake stamps and stamp papers worth lakhs from the car of the arrested men. The operation was supervised by Ranjit Singh Sharma, Pune8217;s then police commissioner.

Soon after the arrests, Pune police raided godowns in Mumbai, Pune and Bhivandi. By end June, the police had recovered fake stationary and machinery estimated to be worth over Rs 2,200 crore.

By then the police had also zeroed in on Abdul Karim Telgi as the alleged mastermind of the racket. Attempts to bring Telgi, who had been arrested by Karnataka police in 2001 and kept in Bangalore Jail, to Maharashtra for interrogations had also begun. But the Pune police could get custody of Telgi only in August. In October 2002 the case turned stranger with senior police officers levelling charges against each other. Taking a serious note of the row, the state government formed a Special Investigation Team which took over the investigation in November 2002. Sharma was moved to Mumbai where he took charge as police commissioner.

THE first thing the SIT did was to go through the evidence collected by the Pune police. A couple of months after Sharma took over as Mumbai8217;s police commissioner, SIT officials found Telgi in his Cuff Parade residence when he was supposed to be in the custody of Mumbai police. Officers of the Mumbai police crime branch too were found in his home.


	STAMP OF SHAME 8226; The alleged mastermind of the stamp paper racket Abdul Karim Telgi is in Yerawada prison 8226; One of the accused, a sub- inspector who was suspended, died in Yerawada jail last year 8226; Politicians arrested for their role in the scandal include former MLA Dhule Anil Gote and former Andhra Pradesh minister Channaboyana Krishna Yadav Story continues below this ad

In the next few months, the SIT targeted senior police officers, officials from the office of the Inspector General of Registration as well as India Security Press and politicians who were alleged to have links with Telgi. Among the arrested police officials were Mumbai and Pune8217;s former police commissioner R S Sharma, Mumbai8217;s joint commissioner of police Shridhar Vagal, encounter specialist Pradip Sawant, ACPs Vashishtha Andhale and Mohammed Mulani, police inspectors Gokul Patil and Datta Dal, assistant inspector Dilip Kamat and sub-inspector Pratap Kakade.

The arrested politicians included former MLA from Dhule Anil Gote and former Andhra Pradesh minister Channaboyana Krishna Yadav. Telgi8217;s brother Abdul Azim and nephews Parvez and Tabrez were also arrested. In May 2004, the Supreme Court ordered the investigation be transferred from the SIT to the CBI.

AFTER the CBI took over, it scrutinised the evidence again. The arrested accused meanwhile were trying desperately for bail and CBI officials spent a lot of time shuttling between various courts attending hearings on their applications.

The transfer of special judge S M Shembole of MCOCA court in May resulted in further delay.

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Although almost all accused moved bail applications on several occasions, only Sharma, Sawant, Andhale and Dal have been granted bail so far. Suspended sub-inspector Pratap Kakade died under suspicious circumstances at Yerawada jail last year.