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Andhra Pradesh
By W. Chandrakanth
Going by the apprehensions of his counsel, Yousuf Iqbal of the Mumbai High Court, the Special Investigation Team of Maharashtra might oppose Mr. Yadav's bail petition. The SIT might cite lack of progress in investigations as the reason for seeking an extension of his police remand which expires on September 20. Clearly, it is going to be a long haul for the former Minister, who has been in custody of the Pune police since September 7 after he was arrested in Hyderabad by the SIT in connection with the multi-crore stamp scam. Mr.Yadav faces various charges under at least 30 sections of the IPC, Bombay Stamp Act and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). His arrest is the 53rd so far in the scam which officially has spread to nine States though the Special Public Prosecutor of the Maharashta Government says that persons across 16 States are involved. Mr.Yadav was remanded to police custody by the Judicial First Class Magistrate in connection with a case No. 135 of 2002 registered with the Bundhgarden police station here on June 7, 2002. His complicity in the scam came to light with the seizure of a tape allegedly containing a conversation regarding a compromise deal between Abdul Kareem Telgi, the kingpin behind the scam, and him. Yadav is facing a paradox because the less he talks to the SIT the more the delay in framing a charge-sheet which denies his advocate an opportunity of moving a bail petition. The SIT Officer, C. H. Wakade, stated as much on Monday to reporters after filing a supplementary chargesheet against 16 persons. "Where is the hurry. We have 180 days for filing the chargesheet," he said. Yadav has been interrogated for eight days till now, and, it is learnt that the emphasis of the probe is more on establishing his links with Telgi. It is Telgi's practice of taping all conversations and subsequently storing them on hard disc which has landed the MLA in trouble. The SIT is not just interested in how much money changed hands for the compromise formula but also in establishing the extent of understanding between the two "for offering cooperation, protection and permission." The tape allegedly says this. Another angle that the SIT is probing is Mr. Yadav's connection with Abdul Waheed, Telgi's agent for the entire South India. Waheed was allegedly kidnapped by the MLA's men in Hyderabad and confined for 43 days in 1998 for conducting business without Yadav's `permission.' A `face-to-face confrontation' between these two has "not yielded the desired results" for the SIT so far. Unless the SIT sufficiently establishes these connections, all other charges would fly in the face of a good defence. The SIT is fully aware of it and is treading with caution. Scribes who earlier had access to the taped conversation say it contained a high quality audio and left little doubt over the intention of Telgi in recording such compromise deals. "It is a very clear tape aimed at fixing Mr.Yadav. Telgi's was a class act", a scribe remarked. But, Sudhir Shah, another counsel of Yadav, expressed doubts over the genuinity of the tapes. Yadav was first interrogated by the SIT here on April 29 when his voice culture was done to establish links with Telgi. The Andhra Pradesh angle has become important because of the allegation that the scam came to light in the State in 1998 itself but was suppressed. As far as the Mumbai police are concerned, they came across the alleged Rs. 2,200-crore scam in 1995 involving fake stamp papers when the first case was registered against Telgi. It got speeded up when the Pune police took up the investigations. In all, 54 persons have been arrested and 49 of them face charges.
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