PUNE, 19 June — Police busted a major inter-state racket when they seized counterfeit stamps and stamp papers worth 2.5 billion rupees in a raid on a warehouse in Purna village near Bhiwandi and a flat owned by the main accused in Bombay.
Pune Police Commissioner R.S. Sharma said some specimen of fake stamps together with negatives and aluminum plates used for printing were also seized from the flat owned by Abdul Karim Telgi. Sharma, who is supervising the investigation, said the racket had its tentacles spread in Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi. Six to seven companies, most of them based in Bombay, were linked to the counterfeit racket. Sharma said the gang of counterfeiters had bought more than 35 prime properties in Bangalore Bombay, Belgaum, Khanapur, Shimoga and Hubli and floated a film finance company which was named after Telgi’s daughter. The police have so far arrested 10 members of the gang and are on the lookout for 14 others.
Commenting on the modus operandi of the gang, Sharma said staff recruited by companies floated by the gang would approach stamp vendors, private companies, builders, banks and insurance companies with offers of stationary without transport cost and commission.
The police are still investigating possible links between the gang members and the underworld. Involvement of employees of the Government Security Press at Nasik in Maharastra, where all stamps, stamp papers and currency notes are printed, have also come under scrutiny. Sharma said Telgi, who is in a Bangalore jail, will be brought to Pune for questioning.
A university graduate Telgi, who is a hard-core criminal, swindler and conman with a rags to riches tag, had several aliases like Karim Lala, Telgi AKL, Karim Abdul, Karim Bhai and Lala Saheb. Strangely enough, he is Robinhood for the residents of Khanapur town in Karnataka state.
