A special court on Monday framed charges against key accused Abdul Karim Telgi and his aide in the multi-crore fake stamp case.
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"It is pertinent to mention that the offence in question was only a part of larger conspiracy which was allegedly hatched by Telgi in cahoots with various other persons," said S S Rathi, Special Metropolitan Magistrate while framing the charges against the accused.
The accused - Telgi and Anand G Thorat - again turned over from their earlier stands and informed the court that they do not wish to oppose the framing of charges in the case wherein they allegedly supplied the counterfeit stamps worth crores to various companies and individuals.
Charges under Section 258 (sale of counterfeit government stamps), 260 (using fake stamp paper as genuine), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code was ordered to be framed against the duo as the third accused Abdul Gafoor Muzahid is now dead.
The court expressed shock when the CBI counsel informed it that there was no recovery of sale proceeds from the accused in the case and said, "It is disturbing to observe that even the loss of crores of revenue to the exchequer upon sale of fake stamp papers but the sale proceeds had been gobbled up by the wrong doers."
Earlier, on the last date of hearing when the court was about to frame the charges against the accused, Telgi, who appeared through video conferencing, said his counsel Abdur Rehman was forcibly abstained from appearing as "he was attacked by some Bar members and other persons".
The court then asked other defence counsel R C Parthak to talk to Rehman who reportedly conveyed that he had complained to the Chief Justice of India in this regard and that he will appear on January two.
But when Rehman did not turn up for the hearing even on Monday, the court ordered the charges to be framed.
According to the CBI probe in the case, Anand G Thorat, a native of Belgaum in Karnataka, was the manager of Telgi's M/s Prime services, which supplied fake stamp papers in Delhi.
Thorat was arrested on December 3, 2000. They allegedly transacted about Rs 70 lakh, which was amassed by selling fake stamps in the national capital.