Telgi gets 13 years' jail after guilty plea

Pune: The prime accused in a politically sensitive multi-billion-rupee scam in Maharashtra involving the printing and circulation of fake stamp papers was yesterday sentenced to 13 years in jail after he pleaded guilty.

The special court in Maharashtra also ordered Abdul Karim Telgi to pay a fine of Rs500 million (Dh45 million) failing which he would be incarcerated for another three years.

Chitra K. Bedi, presiding over the court set up under a state law for preventing organised crimes, also sentenced his 42 co-accused to jail terms ranging from one year to seven years.

The judge observed that the court might have passed a stricter sentence had the accused not pleaded guilty.

This was the first and the most important in a series of 49 cases related to the Rs30 billion scandal.

It was this case that blew the lid off the scam, masterminded by the 46-year-old stamp vendor and spread over nearly a dozen states.

The Bundgarden police here had registered the case after seizing fake government stamps and stamp papers from a car in 2002.

The investigation was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) taking into account its multi-state character. The scandal involved large-scale printing, circulation and sale of counterfeit government stamp papers and other security instruments by an organised crime syndicate headed by Telgi.

Earlier in the day, Telgi pleaded guilty amid high drama in the courtroom. With folded hands and tearful eyes, he answered the judge's queries and said he was aware of the huge loss to the national exchequer caused by his actions.

Saying "sorry" to the country for his crime, he added that his wife had persuaded him to admit his guilt unconditionally.

Following his confession, Telgi's counsel Harshad Nimbalkar appealed to the court to take a lenient view on punishing him and take into account his HIV-positive status.

CBI counsel Raja Thakre opposed the plea, saying: "A lenient view of this criminal who is now shedding crocodile tears should not influence the quantum of sentence as it will send wrong signals to the people and imply that anyone can get away softly despite the magnitude of the crime."

Telgi, currently lodged in Yerwada Central Jail here, had on Wednesday conveyed his desire to plead guilty through his counsel after 42 of his co-accused had done the same.

In a sensational disclosure during a narco-analysis test in 2003, Telgi had named several powerful politicians and officials as his accomplices.