Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Krishna Yadav taken to Bangalore, grilled

By B.S. Ramesh

BANGALORE Sept. 24. In a dramatic visit to the ongoing fake stamp paper racket controversy, the arrested Telegu Desam MLA, Krishna Yadav, was brought to Bangalore and interrogated for two days.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Maharashtra police had arrested Yadav, the TDP MLA from Himayathnagar constituency, on September 6 from Hyderabad for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore fake stamp paper and embossing racket.

The SIT team had earlier visited Warangal and West Godavari districts apart from Hyderabad and other places in Andhra Pradesh after they had secured vital clues linking Krishna Yadav to Abdul Kareem Telgi alias Karim Lala, the prime accused in the stamp paper racket.

After interrogating Krishna Yadav in Hyderabad, a team of Pune police led by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Jaiswal, brought the suspended TDP MLA to Bangalore as they wanted to establish the links of Telgi and Yadav.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu on Wednesday that senior officials of the Stamp Investigation Team (STAMPIT) had questioned Yadav during his two-day stay in Bangalore City. Incidentally, STAMPIT has been in close coordination with police agencies of other States, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh in the ongoing investigation into the stamp paper racket.

The STAMPIT, headed by the Additional Director-General of Police and Chairman of the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation (KSPHC), R. Sri Kumar, has so far filed 10 chargesheets in connection with the stamp paper racket apart from recovering fake stamp papers and embossed articles worth crores of rupees.

It may be recalled that the stamp paper racket first came to light when the Bangalore City police cracked the case.

The SIT of Maharashtra has charged Yadav under at least 30 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including the Bombay Stamp Act and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The sources said both the SIT and the Andhra Pradesh Police had now established the complicity of Yadav in the stamp paper racket.

Meanwhile, the SIT and the STAMPIT have arrived at a fairly accurate conclusion about the operation of the racket, which they say went on for a number of years in at least 16 States.

Interestingly, Telgi is now lodged in the sprawling open-air jail in Parappana Agrahara on the outskirts of Bangalore City. The SIT team from Pune left Bangalore along with Yadav to Pune on Wednesday evening.

While the sources confirmed that the police had already decoded the hard disc seized from Telgi, they did not want to comment on whether a face-to-face meeting was arranged between Telgi and Yadav. They said that the link between Telgi and Yadav had been established beyond any doubt.

When contacted, the STAMPIT chief, Sri Kumar, said investigations were still on and that a crucial stage had been reached in the investigations.

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