The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Many police officers involved in fake stamp paper case: CBI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Many police officers involved in fake stamp paper case: CBI

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, JULY 7. In a sensational disclosure in the "fake stamp paper scam", the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today told a city court that many police officers were involved in the case. It has material to show that "lakhs and lakhs were paid" to Tamil Nadu police officers.

Opposing the bail plea by A.P. Mohamed Ali, Deputy Inspector-General, Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department (CB CID); S. Sankar, Assistant Commissioner of Police; and R. Sadhu, an officer of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the CBI prosecutor, Jacob Daniel, said during arguments before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, D. Arulraj, that the investigating agency had the tape-recorded conversation of the prime accused in the main case, Telgi, and his confessional statement. From these, it was known how much money was paid to police officers. The three accused had "directly contributed to the sale of fake stamp papers".

Why arrests

Detailing why the investigating agency arrested the three, Mr. Jacob Daniel said Telgi planted his lieutenants in the country, who were now in custody.

His associates, Nizamuddin, Wahid, Balaji and Siara Banu, hired two places at Anna Nagar here. Marina Services was started in 1998 with Nizamuddin in charge.

Through this agency fake stamp papers supplied through Wahid were sold in Tamil Nadu. In November 2000, the other agency, Shara Enterprises, was opened for selling stamp papers to the LIC.

No case registered

In January 2002, the State `Q' branch police wrote to Mr. Ali that fake stamp papers were being sold in Tamil Nadu and gave the two addresses. The DIG endorsed the letter. A team apprehended Balaji. But only fake stamp papers with a face value of Rs. 3,750 were recovered from him. Even the seizure was not recorded. Though the offence was cognisable, no case was registered against Balaji and the same day, he was allowed to leave.

Sale to LIC

A few days later, a case was registered against Nizamuddin, but Balaji's name was not mentioned. Nizamuddin was not arrested and Balaji was not called for questioning again. Fake stamp papers with a face value of about Rs. 2 crores were sold to the LIC between January and April 2002 as was revealed from the statement of accounts in a bank at Kilpauk here. In April 2002, nearly a month after Siara Banu was arrested, Nizamuddin surrendered to the police, but he was not arrested. The stamp papers were shown as if these were seized at two different places. Nizamuddin was shown as having been arrested a few days after his surrender. However, he came out on bail in 10 days.

Following the arrest of Nizamuddin by the Karnataka police and a subsequent search, fake stamp papers with a face value of Rs. 170 crores were seized on the basis of Nizamuddin's information.

After hearing arguments, the magistrate dismissed the bail plea by Mr. Ali and Mr. Sankar.

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