The Hindu : Stamp scam: Karnataka Minister's kin surrenders

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Sunday, Dec 21, 2003

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Stamp scam: Karnataka Minister's kin surrenders

By Our Staff Reporter

Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Rehan Baig (left), brother of the Karnataka Minister for Small Scale Industries, Roshan Baig, arriving at the STAMPIT office in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE DEC. 20. Rehan Baig, younger brother of the Karnataka Minister for Small Scale Industries, Roshan Baig, surrendered here today before the Stamp Paper Investigation Team (STAMPIT), which is probing the fake stamp paper racket.

Dr. Baig (42), against whom the 9th Additional City Metropolitan Magistrate Court had issued an arrest warrant on December 15 following an application by the STAMPIT, arrived at the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation (KSPHC), where the STAMPIT office is situated, around 3.30 p.m.As Dr. Baig was talking to the presspersons outside KSPHC premises, police took him away.

Dr. Baig told presspersons that he knew the prime accused in the stamp paper scam, Abdul Kareem Telgi, and that he had done "legal business with him for three months" in 1996. However, he denied that he had a role in the scam and claimed that he was not even aware of Telgi's illegal business.

Dr. Baig said that he was a qualified clinical pathologist working for the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia and had come to Bangalore on a vacation in 1996. "During that period I was running a travel agency and had been to Mumbai to see off Haj pilgrims. It was there I met Telgi, who too was from Karnataka."

Telgi had come out with some business proposals then and subsequently he (Dr. Baig) had "marketed" dal, palm oil and kerosene supplied by Telgi in Bangalore for three months, before joining work in Saudi Arabia.

"A few years later, when in Saudi Arabia, I learnt through newspapers and the Internet that Telgi was involved in the stamp paper scam," he said.

Referring to a letter, which he had purportedly written to the Commercial Tax Department stating that he was letting out his premises on Brigade Road here to Telgi, Dr. Baig said that the letter was fake and even police knew that. "I am not even the owner of the said property."

Telgi might have approached him in 1996, as his brother was the Minister of State for Home at that time. But Dr. Baig claimed that he had never used his brother's clout for helping Telgi.

Dr. Baig charged the STAMPIT, which was silent for two years, had suddenly become hyper active and was trying to frame him and his brother due to "political compulsions."

"I am proud to be Mr. Roshan Baig's brother. He has been a honest politician for the last 20 years and there is no evidence against us which can stand in a court of law," Dr. Baig said.

Meanwhile, the 9th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, where Dr. Baig was produced, remanded him to judicial custody till Monday.

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