The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Mohamed Ali remanded

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Mohamed Ali remanded

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, JULY 2. A top Tamil Nadu police officer and two others arrested yesterday in the multi-crore fake stamp paper racket were today remanded to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by a city court.

The three — Tamil Nadu Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) A.P. Mohamed Ali (Crime Branch- CID), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) S. Sankar, serving as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Anti-Dowry Cell, and Life Insurance Corporation Administrative Officer, Madurai, R. Sadhu — will be produced before the court on July 5 at 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ali and Mr. Sankar have been suspended, official sources said.

The CBI told the court it needed the accused in its custody to unravel the conspiracy.

Mr. Ali and Mr. Sankar were arrested for allegedly not taking effective steps to curb the fake stamp paper racket, despite having arrested some persons in connection with the scam. The two were brought to the Egmore court along with Mr. Sadhu amidst tight security and produced before the X Metropolitan Magistrate, Alamelu Natarajan, around noon today.

The CBI Public Prosecutor, S. Radha, submitted the remand report along with the police custody report to the court, seeking five days police custody of the three accused. When the Magistrate asked the three whether they had any complaint, they said they had not been ill-treated by the investigating agency.

Mr. Ali alleged that he had been supervising sensitive cases involving several political leaders, and he had therefore been implicated in the fake stamp paper case.

The Deputy Inspector General said he was suffering from hypertension and bronchitis, and said he was not fit for CBI custody. Mr. Shankar told the court he was a chronic diabetic, and was willing to be in the CBI's custody, but he had nothing to disclose to the agency. Mr. Sadhu said he was in good health and agreed to be in the CBI's custody.

In his sworn statement seeking police custody, the investigating officer submitted that Mr. Ali and Mr. Shankar, who was then an Inspector (in the CB-CID), during investigation of a case relating to the fake stamp papers in 2002 had suppressed important facts by omission and commission to save the accused. They had allowed another co-accused of Abdul Karim Telgi (the main accused in the stamp paper racket) and his associates to continue the illegal sale of fake stamp papers in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. Mr. Sadhu had conspired with the accused Telgi, Nizamuddin and Balaji in selling fake insurance stamps to various LIC offices in the State by using his influence as an active member of the LIC officers association.

The Magistrate remanded the accused to judicial custody till July 16. When the court wanted to know whether the accused would be taken outside the State, as special permission was required for doing so, the prosecutor replied in the negative. The Magistrate instructed the prosecution to provide medical attention to the accused whenever required.

Counsel for Mr. Ali said a lawyer should be allowed to meet the police officer every two hours during police custody.

The court then asked counsel to file a petition seeking this.

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