The Hindu : CBI to probe fake stamp paper scam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 23, 2003

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CBI to probe fake stamp paper scam

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 22. The Government intends to hand over investigations into the multi-crore, multi-State fake stamp paper scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday. According to official sources, while fake stamp paper worth Rs. 3,500 crores has been seized over the last 10 years, the Intelligence Bureau estimates that the value of the current scam, allegedly perpetrated by Abdul Karim Telgi, could be over Rs. 20,000 crores.

The decision to hand over the case was taken by the Union Finance Ministry after the CBI said that concurrence of the State Governments was not required in registering a case if there were directions from the High Courts or the Supreme Court. Since there was such a direction from the Allahabad High Court recently, the Ministry decided to formally report the case.

This was necessary because Karnataka and Maharashtra, the two States hit most severely by the fake stamp paper scam, have not agreed to hand over the case to the CBI, despite a reference from the Home Ministry.

The CBI has so far been investigating cases of fake stamp paper in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Hyderabad, independent of what has now come to be known as the "Telgi scam".

It was in January this year that the Finance Ministry first came to know about the involvement in the scam of some officials of the Indian Security Press (ISP), Nashik, on the basis of a presentation made to it by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team probing the scam.

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