Monday, April 23, 2007

Telgi gets 10-year jail in fake stamp paper scam

24 Apr, 2007 l 0037 hrs IST l TIMES NEWS NETWORK
NEW DELHI: A special CBI court in Bangalore on Monday sentenced fake stamp paper racket kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi and four of his associates to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.

It is the third conviction of Telgi in the scam, the cases of which are being probed by the CBI in 11 states.

While the scamster was convicted first in January last year by a Mumbai court, the second conviction was handed out by the Bangalore court in a case pertaining to Karnataka in March.

Incidentally, in all the three cases, Telgi was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Over 40 related cases are still being investigated against him and his associates.

Referring to the third conviction, a CBI spokesperson said, ‘‘The court had, on Saturday, convicted all the five persons including Telgi for conspiracy, cheating, counterfeiting of government stamp, possession of instrument and material for counterfeiting purpose and forgery of valuable security under Karnataka Stamps Act.”

The case was registered in 1999 by the Bangalore police on the complaint of one Clarence Perara, director of Deccan Structural Systems (P) Ltd, saying a deed of the firm relating to allotment of a site by Bangalore Development Authority was embossed with fake seal of Rs 490,420 by Anees Khan, a representative of M/s Unique Services.

‘‘Subsequently, in compliance of the orders of the Supreme Court, CBI took up the investigation. During
the course of the probe, roles of Telgi and his associates, namely Anees Khan, Badruddin, Wazir Ahmed and Iliyas, were revealed,’’ said the spokesperson.

A number of fake stamp papers were also retrieved from the customer of Unique Services, Bangalore, a firm that sold fake stamps/stamp papers at the behest of Telgi.