Telgi rules, OK?

A Muslim fisherwoman replies, 8216;8216;Ji nahi. Hum to bahaar hi rehte hain No. I am never at home.8217;8217;

8216;8216;Kabhi dekha hai Have you seen him?8217;8217;

They look at each other. 8216;8216;Nahi8217;8217;

The people of Khanapur are serious Telgi loyalists. Their way of defending him is simply ignoring any mention of his name.

Outside the old house, Telgi8217;s older brother Abdul Rahim graciously receives visiting mediapersons. But he too has nothing to say.

Did he know what Telgi was upto? No response.

What does he think about it?

8216;8216;Bada hoon. Woh meri zimmedari hai. Bura lagta hai I am the older one. He8217;s my responsibility. It hurts,8217;8217; he whispers, his lips trembling.

THE second of three sons, Abdul Karim Telgi was born in Khanapur 47 years ago. The family is from Telgi village, Bijapur and speaks Kannada, Hindi and Urdu. Telgi8217;s father Laadsab worked as a cinder collection supervisor at Khanapur railway station. The family lived in a small house next to the station, where Telgi8217;s new bungalow now stands.

Poverty and his father8217;s early demise forced Telgi to fend for himself. A student of Khanapur8217;s English medium missionary school Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Telgi educated himself by selling vegetables and fruits on trains.

Acquaintances remember him as a friendly, well-dressed, secular and ambitious youngster who never bad-mouthed anybody and always wanted to go to the Gulf. After graduating in the late 1970s, Telgi moved to West Asia and did a few odd jobs. He returned to settle in Mumbai where he worked in a hotel in Chira Bazaar, South Mumbai. His foray into the world of fakes began with forging documents for sending people to the Gulf.

But it was the fake stamp paper business he started in the early 8217;90s that raked in the moolah. Newly rich, Telgi began visiting Khanapur in a chauffeur-driven car as an awestruck village looked on.

He distributed clothes and money among the villagers. He sponsored village activities, pilgrimages and even helped people get jobs. His point person in Khanapur was his brother Abdul Azeez. Telgi reportedly disbursed donations through his brother to enable the latter to build goodwill for an entry into politics.

Today Khanapur is full of contrasts 8212; bullock carts and fast cars co-exist as do paddy growers and mobile phone dealers. But nobody8217;s really revealing the extent of Telgi8217;s contribution to this change.

8216;8216;He has done so much for Khanapur. Even those who haven8217;t seen him worship him,8217;8217; a close friend of the Telgi family claims.

8216;8216;Khanapur is Telgi8217;s punya bhoomi, where he did good deeds. Mumbai is his karmabhoomi and paap bhoomi the place of his sins,8217;8217;says Prakash Parulekar, bureau chief of the region8217;s popular Marathi daily Tarun Bharat.

Telgi8217;s catharsis came from building his new mansion opposite his old house. A long passageway bathed in the afternoon sunlight leads to around half-a-dozen rooms on either side. Telgi8217;s mother Sharifa Bi is the sole occupant of the mansion. She spends her days in her bed facing a huge television set which updates her on her son. Older brother Abdul Rahim lives with his wife and two sons in a section of the old house. He hasn8217;t moved to the mansion for 8216;8216;personal reasons8217;8217;.

Sharifa Bi doesn8217;t talk. She just stares in space. 8216;8216;She keeps asking about him Telgi,8217;8217; a family member says. 8216;8216;She just wants to know when he8217;ll return home.8217;8217;