PUNE, 11 November 2003 — The multimillion rupees counterfeit stamp racket generated ripples in political circles when Maharashtra Governor Mohammed Fazal in a stunning move yesterday afternoon summoned state Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to meet him today to discuss the issue after a delegation of opposition party leaders met him yesterday.
The delegation led by Shiv Sena-BJP alliance leader and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane met the governor and submitted a memorandum demanding the immediate dismissal and arrest of Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party. The delegation in its memorandum also demanded that the multimillion fake stamp scam be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The governor after giving a patient hearing told the delegation that he would look into their demands.
Speaking to journalists, Rane asked as to why the Congress-led state government was hesitating to hand over the case to the CBI.
Bhujbal met the governor late in the evening. Emerging half an hour after meeting the governor, Bhujbal told journalists that he explained to the governor the complete fake stamp scam and said that he was not involved in the scam as stated by the oppositon delegation.
The Special Investigating Team (SIT) last night arrested two more police inspectors — Jangle from Thane near Bombay and Nemade from Nasik. In another development, the SIT yesterday interrogated Bombay Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner of Police Ramakant Padwal and Thane Crime Branch Inspector Ajit Deshmukh.
The Karnataka government officials were present in the Bombay High Court yesterday to present the 56 audio cassettes of the more than 100 hours of telephonic conversation between the stamps scam accused and the police officials. The transcripts will make more skeletons to fall out of cupboards and will lead to more arrests, said a police official.
Karnataka Additional Director General of Police R. Shrikumar, who is the head of the Karnataka SIT, said if the contents of the tapes are leaked, it will have adverse effect on the investigations and will make the accused persons to flee.
Meanwhile, in Bihar state, the Patna police arrested seven persons for selling fake stamp papers and counterfeit US dollars, and also recovered several mobiles and fake stamps worth 3 million rupees.
