The Hindu : `Centre for transfer of stamp cases to CBI'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 24, 2003

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National

`Centre for transfer of stamp cases to CBI'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 23. While stating that the Government proposed to amend the Stamp Act to enable use of modern technology for foolproof collection of revenue of the State Governments, the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, today said the Government would move for transfer of all stamp paper cases with inter-State ramifications to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"In this connection, the Government is filing a representation so that all cases having inter-State ramifications are transferred to the CBI and to request that Maharashtra and Karnataka police share all the documents and material collecting during their investigations with the CBI to enable it to investigate the full implications of the fraud all over the country,'' Mr. Singh said while replying to a discussion on the stamp paper scam in the Rajya Sabha. The representation by the Government would be filed in the Supreme Court.

The CBI is investigating seven cases related to the scam pertaining to U.P., Gujarat, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. Further, it has been given the go-ahead to take suitable action against the India Security Press (ISP) at Nashik. "The Government is determined to ensure that all guilty are punished without delay,'' he said.

He said the Government was considering how best to play a catalytic role in facilitating a system whereby dematerialisation of stamps with computer connectivity could be installed. If necessary, Mr. Singh said, funds for the pilot phase to introduce such a system would be provided by the Centre. Stressing that citizens should not be harassed in any way due to the scam, Mr. Singh said "if needed, we can introduce a legislation for saving them from inconvenience.''

The Finance Minister sought to refute reports on the extent of the scam involving as much as Rs. 60,000 crores.

"The seizure of fake stamp papers is about Rs. 3,500 crores. All other figures floating around are speculative and incorrect.,'' he said adding that fake stamp papers of the magnitude would mean transactions of over Rs. 6 lakh crores which was highly improbable.

He said that the CBI and Income Tax authorities were already investigating the matter to know the full extent of the fraud and also to determine where the money had gone.

He also gave a detailed chronology of the events from 1998 that led to the stamp paper scam. Mr. Singh said new featured stamp papers are being published since October this year and machines from the security presses were sold to a company called Unique Enterprises in March and April 1998 in a "routine way of disposing of old machinery.''

It was only in November 2000 that the first reports of forgery in stamp papers appeared but there was no indication of any organised racket or involvement of ISP officials, he said. When he took over as the Finance Minister in July 2002, the Intelligence Bureau was asked to maintain surveillance over the ISP, Nashik.

In August 2002, after investigating the matter "we immediately alerted the intelligence agencies, the Home Ministry and the surveillance system at the ISP at Nashik was tightened,'' he said. All security agencies were alerted and the departmental security at the Nashik security press was replaced with the Central Industrial Security Force in October 2002 on the outer periphery.

As a follow up action to the letters written by the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, Mr. Singh said he set up a committee to introduce more technical features and by March 2003 "I informed the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to share the names of personnel working at ISPs in Nashik and Hyderabad,''. He said new stamp papers with modern security features would be introduced by July 2004.

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