Rapping the Central Bureau of Investigation, a New Delhi court has directed re-investigation of a multi-crore fake stamp scam case in which kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi had allegedly tried to involve a former member of Parliament in his counterfeit insurance policy stamp racket.
Rejecting CBI's request to close the case against Telgi and three others, Additional Sessions Judge Dinesh Dayal said:
"It appears that CBI had proceeded to file the closure report merely because the person who should have been an accused refused that he had accepted the money."
"I find that the CBI has not taken proper steps to investigate the matter in spite of the fact that the FIR was registered on May 31, 2005," the court said while noting that the CBI had alleged that the accused had sought the help of former
Lok Sabha MP A D K Jeyaseelan in 2002.
"No investigation has been made to establish whether money was received by him (Jeyaseelan - as part of his alleged
collusion with the accused)," the court said, ordering a fresh look at the former MP's alleged links with Telgi.
The agency, in its report seeking closure of the case, registered in 2005, against Telgi and co-accused -- Jacob
Chacko (acquaintance of Telgi); Ramaswamy Sadhu and S Sivaramakrishnan (then officers at LIC) -- stated that "no
incriminating material and evidence" could be gathered in order to prosecute them.
In its FIR, the agency had alleged that Chacko and Sadhu had approached Sivaramakrishnan, then senior branch Manager at LIC, Madurai, to help them obtain a letter from Jeyaseelan, to help them get a supply order for insurance stamps, in the name of Telgi-owned Shara Enterprises.
It was also alleged that the former MP had written a letter on March 13, 2002 in that regard, to Minister of State
for Finance, with a request to advise LIC to purchase policy stamps from the six companies of Telgi, situated in different
cities of the country.
While the FIR alleged that Sivaramakrishnan was paid a sum of Rs 1.09 lakh for facilitating the deal, the agency in
its closure report said that Sadhu and Sivaramakrishnan had resiled from their earlier statement admitting of complicity
in the case.
The court, in its recent order directing CBI to further probe the case, said that both the accused persons could not be
let off simply because they retracted from their earlier statements.
"These two persons (R Sadhu and S Sivaramakrishnan), who were part of the conspiracy cannot be let off merely because they have refused to make statements under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code before Magistrate," the judge said.
Pointing to the inadequate investigation towards establishing evidence on monetary transaction between the accused persons and Jeyaseelan, the court said that out of total Rs 1.09 lakhs allegedly received by Sivaramakrishnan, a sum of Rs one lakh appeared to have been paid to the then MP.
The CBI in its report had said that the material collected during investigation of the case could not establish that Jeyaseelan had "abused his official position by corrupt means".