The Hindu : Venkaiah demands CBI inquiry into stamp paper racket

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 13, 2003

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Venkaiah demands CBI inquiry into stamp paper racket

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 12. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, today demanded that the Maharashtra and Karnataka Governments agree to a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the staggering fake stamp paper scandal, failing which the ruling Congress in the two States ``will have to pay heavily,'' he warned.

Mr. Naidu threatened to unleash a major BJP campaign on the issue and senior leaders later said this could become part of the election campaign focussing on ``misgovernance'' in the Congress-ruled States. It was in this context that Mr. Naidu also pointed out that for the last six months the Congress administration in Kerala had come to a standstill as the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the former Chief Minister, K. Karunakaran, were fully engaged in a political battle.

In the backdrop of the allegation that some heads of public sector units had complained to the Chief Vigilance Commissioner about ministers misusing their office to put pressure on them, Mr. Naidu said that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, should have written to her own Chief Ministers asking them to agree to a CBI inquiry into the fake stamp paper racket rather than writing to the Prime Minister on the ``non-incident'' related to PSUs heads. In fact, when a reporter tried to ask a question on the reported PSUs complaints, Mr. Naidu ended the press conference.

``It is perhaps the single biggest scandal since Independence. The estimated loot through the selling of fake stamp paper was estimated at Rs. 30,000 crores,'' Mr. Naidu added, saying that the gigantic proportion of the scam reminded him of the Harshad Mehta shares scandal. ``Senior police officials, politicians and legislators were probably involved in this. Since it was an inter-State matter with the possible involvement of the underworld, it was a fit case for the CBI,'' he added. The Congress silence was surprising indeed, Mr. Naidu said.

While not making any allegations against the local police investigating the case, Mr. Naidu did suggest that police had to some extent shielded the main suspects — Abdul Karim Telgi and his brother. ``When the main accused was in police custody he was kept in a comfortable palatial house,'' Mr. Naidu alleged.

His party ``was not demanding the resignation of either the Maharashtra Chief Minister (Sushil Kumar Shinde) or the Deputy Chief Minister (Chhagan Bhujbal).'' ``I am only demanding a CBI inquiry into the scandal, and if the Congress does not agree it means it has something to hide.''

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