ABDUL KARIM TELGI, prime accused in the multicrore fake stamp paper scam, has perhaps realised that it is the end of the road for him. With massive amounts of evidence piling up and not many of his powerful supporters coming to his rescue and with his health rapidly failing, the fraudster does not seem to have much going in his favour.
On June 28, Telgi along with 43 others pleaded guilty in a Special Court in Pune. A few hours later, Judge Chitra Bhedi found Telgi guilty under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in one of the 39 cases registered against him in the State. Judge Bhedi sentenced him to 13 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a staggering fine of Rs.251 crore. The judge sentenced the 43 others to a minimum of five years' imprisonment.
This is the biggest of the many cases lodged against Telgi across the country. The incident that led to the case, known as the Bund Garden case, blew the lid off the huge scam. In 2002, the Pune police seized a car carrying fake stamp papers in the Bund Garden locality of the city. Following the seizure, investigations unravelled an elaborate network of fraud spanning the entire country.
While delivering the judgment, Judge Bhedi said: "It's only because you have repented that you have got a lenient punishment. If you had opted for a trial, you might have been more severely punished." A tearful Telgi apparently stood with folded hands and appealed to the judge to be lenient as he was the only breadwinner in the family and as he was suffering from various ailments (he is HIV+) that have no cure.
Telgi's confession came as quite a surprise as he had been holding out saying that if he went down he would take many others with him. Telgi told the judge that his wife, Shahida, had convinced him to plead guilty as he was very sick. Judge Bhedi asked him whether he realised the consequences and repercussions of his actions. She also asked him whether he realised how much loss and damage he had caused the national exchequer. To this, he replied in the affirmative.
Appealing for leniency in the quantum of sentence, Telgi's lawyer Harshad Nimbalkar told the court to take into consideration the fact that Telgi had been convicted and was serving sentences in four other cases. Nimbalkar said given the state of his health, his sentence should not exceed seven to10 years.
Understandably, the Central Bureau of Investigation lawyer Raja Thakare was not happy with the leniency shown. He told the court that if Telgi was shown any leniency, it would send a wrong message to society and imply that one could get away with crimes of such magnitude.
The prosecution had demanded the maximum possible sentence for the crime, which is a life term. Defence lawyer Avudhut Chimalker said: "By giving Telgi 13 years and imposing such a huge fine, the judge has virtually given life so it is not that lenient either."
Including the present one, there are about 48 cases pending against Telgi across the country. He has been convicted and sentenced in four cases. The first sentence came in January 2006, when Special Judge Salvi in Pune awarded Telgi and his two associates 10 years' RI and imposed a fine of Rs.50,000. In March and April, in two separate cases, a Special Court in Bangalore gave him 10 years' RI for the sale of fake papers to a company. In early June, he was given seven years for producing fake medical certificates.
By printing and selling thousands of fake stamp papers, Telgi defrauded the country of thousands of crores of rupees. More importantly, lakhs of innocent people who unknowingly bought his stamp paper would have been left with invalid documents had the Reserve Bank of India not stepped in and declared that they would still hold good legally.
The money involved in the Telgi scam has been pegged at anywhere between Rs.3,000 crore and Rs.30,000 crore. Investigations are still on to unearth the exact amount. Telgi's operations are believed to have extended across seven States through a network built from 1995.
Meanwhile, former Mumbai Police Commissioner R.S Sharma, whose alleged involvement in the scam brought great shame to the Mumbai police force, was discharged in one of the cases in the scam after a special court found insufficient evidence against him.
Anupama Katakam
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