CBI secures Telgi's custody, brings him to Delhi

After a prolonged legal battle, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday finally managed to secure the custody of prime accused in the multicrore stamp scam Abdul Karim Telgi.

He was brought to Delhi after a Pune court gave the CBI custody of Telgi for 10 days to carry out a detailed probe in the case.

Telgi's arrest and subsequent interrogation led to political uproar in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The Supreme Court had handed over 48 cases pertaining to the multicrore fake stamp case to the CBI in March this year following which the agency took over investigation into the cases spread in various parts of the country.

During his custody, the CBI would interrogate Telgi and 'confront' him with witnesses.

A CBI spokesman said Telgi's custody had been sought in connection with a MCOCA case under which three persons were arrested when police recovered fake stamp papers and counterfeit government stamps from their car.

After their custodial interrogation, the police had managed to arrest several more persons.

The spokesman said so far 65 accused, including Telgi, two MLAs, former Mumbai Police Commissioner R S Gupta and relatives of Telgi, have been arrested and fake stamps amounting to Rs 3000 crore seized.

The CBI has constituted special teams to probe the 48 fake stamp paper scam cases and collected details from all the 12 states and Union Territories.

The states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Special teams were being constituted to probe the stamp cases and the states have been asked to attach Special Investigating Teams, where ever constituted, with CBI, sources said.

Reports from Special Investigating Teams from Karnataka and Maharashtra were taken over by the CBI.

While transferring the stamp cases to the CBI on March 15, the Supreme Court had directed the states and Union Territories to associate and provide to CBI, such resources, including manpower, vehicles, camp offices, office equipment and officials of the state police as required by the agency for investigation of these cases.

The agency has to submit its status report within four months of registering the case.