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Journalism of Courage
Ten days ago, it was seen as a routine arrest. Police stopped a car near the Pune railway station, caught hold of a few people and recovered fake stamps and stamp papers (used in registration of documents) worth Rs 3 lakh.
Today, they dropped a bombshell saying a probe has led to seizures worth over Rs 2,000 crore, that the scam runs in nine states, including Delhi, had even financed a few Bollywood films. And that, as a beginning, all cases in Maharashtra—12 lakh documents were registered last year—will be re-examined.
Pune Police Commissioner Ranjit Singh Sharma said today that the fake stamp paper racket operates in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.
| Pune police with seized fake stamp paper. Express |
And that although the police are yet to work out how much the government has lost so far or how much money was made, the papers seized along with the machines used to print these papers were worth Rs 2,200 crore.
Questioning of the 10 arrested has revealed that they were part of a gang allegedly led by Abdul Karim Telgi, a resident of Khanapur in Karnataka, which ran a ‘‘parallel stamp paper’’ trade in the country, police said.
The gang had allegedly floated several companies and even financed a few Bollywood films ‘‘through a company named after Telgi’s daughter Sana,’’ said Sharma. Moreover, it had also purchased 35 properties in Maharashtra and Karnataka.’’
It was six months ago that the Karnataka police arrested Telgi along with his accomplices and seized counterfeit paper worth Rs 20 crore but it had little idea of the scale of the scam. An official from the Karnataka police team is now camping in Pune to coordinate investigations with the Maharashtra police.
‘‘The racket must have affected all fields where stamps and stamp papers are used. The racket used to circulate counterfeit judicial and non-judicial stamps, postal stamps, adhesive stamps, brokers’ notes and non-duty stamps.
Obviously, it would concern registration of all kinds of documents besides insurance sector and banking,’’ says Sharma. Police said the gang floated companies which claimed to be franchises of government stamps and stamp papers. It would then recruit people to canvas with stamp vendors and other institutions and supply counterfeit stationary at a 2% discount.
Inspector General and Registrar of Stamps, Maharashtra, Nitin Karir says the stamp duty paid for fake stamp papers will be recovered from the parties concerned. ‘‘Each individual case would be examined, and it would be verified whether the stamp papers were purchased from bonafide stamp vendors or unauthorised persons,’’ he says.
He added if stamp vendors were found involved in the selling of fake stamps, the department would take action against them. If the stamps were purchased from unauthorised persons, the buyers will have to repay the stamp duty.
How much of all this is possible is anybody’s guess since it could involve scrutiny of lakhs of registrations and deals. Over 12 lakh documents were registered in Maharashtra last year. Moreover, not all deals on stamp paper are registered. The racket, according to investigating agencies, has been operating for the last eight to 10 years. Some of the senior government officials this newspaper talked to said slack supervision by the government machinery was what made the racket a flourishing trade.
Former divisional commissioner V P Rane observed that a section of stamp vendors were probably involved in the racket without which the sale of counterfeit papers on such a large scale would not have been possible.
Rane suggested that the government should come out with some sort of an amnesty scheme so that stamp vendors may themselves come forward and make a declaration regarding the use of fake stamp papers in the past couple of years.
(with Manish Umbrajkar)
