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Abdul Karim Telgi, the country’s biggest stamp fraudster, started his business by wrongly sending the youth of Rajasthan to Saudi Arabia and ended up in Rajasthan itself.
For a week the policemen had been roaming the streets of Ajmer posing as businessmen. Spent two nights at the train station. When no trace of Telgi was found anywhere, the police team went to Ajmer Dargah. There, Telgi, a fraudster worth Rs 30,000 crore, was found sitting on the threshold of the Dargah.
In the first part of Bhaskar’s special series, you will read how Telgi started.(If you haven’t read it, the link is at the end of this news).
Now read the full story of Telgi’s end in the second part…
In 2007, the court sentenced Telgi to 30 years in prison. He was also asked to pay a fine of SEK 202 million. This was the highest fine in the country at the time.
Was crazy in Bollywood, distributed 2 films of Govinda
Abdul Karim Telgi, who committed the Rs 30,000 crore stamp paper scam, loved the glamor of Bollywood. He wanted to invest his black money from stamp paper in films.
He started a production company called Sana Movies International in his daughter’s name. She produced two films ‘Ek Thi Bechaini’ and ‘Biwi Kamaal, Saali Dhamaal’ but both flopped.
After suffering a loss of crores in film production, he started working as a film distributor. He worked as a distributor of Govinda’s two films ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rahta Hai’ and ‘Ankhi Se Goli Maare’. In this too he had suffered a loss of crores.
When the Pune Police recovered a disk from Telgi after his arrest, it was found that he had invested a total of Rs 11.5 million in TV and films.
Telgi had distributed two Govinda starrer films and suffered losses worth crores in both.
Karim liked a bar dancer who looked like a Bollywood heroine
Telgi once liked dancer Tarannum Khan. She thought she looked like Madhuri Dixit. Tarannum Khan’s house and shop were burnt down in the communal riots of 1992. She has been dancing in bars since she was 16 years old.
Telgi felt that his story and Tarannum’s were similar. This was the reason why he gave property worth crores to Tarannum in Rajasthan.
Police started keeping an eye on Telgi after he spent Rs 84 lakh in one night on Tarannum at the bar. Just two months later, Telgi’s employees were caught with fake stamps.
Telgi once liked dancer Tarannum Khan. She thought she looked like Madhuri Dixit.
The investigation into the case started from Bengaluru
In August 2001, Bengaluru police had caught two youths with fake stamps worth Rs 53 lakh outside Kapali Talkies. It was from here that the investigation into Telgi’s stamp scam started.
After interrogating both of them, the police seized fake stamps worth Rs 8.5 crore from two persons named Badru and Vitthal. When they were both interrogated, the name of the master who made the fake stamps emerged, Abdul Karim Telgi alias Lala.
After Telgi’s name surfaced, the Bengaluru police started looking for him. Here Telgi came to know that the Bangalore police came to Mumbai to arrest him. Telgi had escaped even before the police reached Mumbai.
The investigation into Telgi’s stamp fraud started after the arrest of two youths in 2001.
The person from the village had told- Telgi is going to Ajmer
The Bengaluru police raided many of Telgi’s locations across the country in search of him, but he was not found. Telgi had helped his brother win the election by giving a free visit to the Ajmer Dargah to the people of his village Khanpur in Karnataka.
His village activist Jayant Tinaikar knew about his whole scam and black money. Jayant had helped the police a lot in arresting Telgi’s associates. Jayant himself told the police who were looking for Telgi that Telgi was going to Ajmer Dargah after a few days.
Police searched in Ajmer wearing Pathani clothes
In the month of November 2001, Bengaluru Police Inspector GA Bawa, Sub Inspector Mariswami Gowda and their team had reached Ajmer in search of Telgi. Telgi used to take the people of his village on pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif Dargah every day.
In such a situation, unnoticed by Telgi and his people, the police, dressed in Pathani clothes and pretending to be a businessman, started searching for Telgi.
There were always buses to reach Ajmer Dargah from his village in Karnataka. (Photo Grab- ‘Scam 2003: The Telgi Story’)
Waited at the railway station for two days
The team waited for Telgi at the railway station for two days. The team used to search for Telgi among the passengers alighting from every train arriving at Ajmer. After waiting for two days, the team started searching lounges, hotels and Dharamshala in Ajmer. He didn’t get Telgi for a week.
The police came to pray and Karim was found there.
Even after searching every street in Ajmer for about a week, the police team was disappointed when Telgi was not found. On November 7, finally, in desperation, the team decided to return to Bengaluru.
Before returning, the team had gone to Ajmer Dargah for prayers. Inspector GA Bawa was anxious to search for Telgi and had tears in his eyes as he prayed at the Dargah. As I turned back and started walking, I saw a man sitting down and kissing the door.
Bava took out Kareem’s photo from his pocket and saw that the person was Telgi. To confirm, Bava called out “Lala”. When Telgi looked back, the police were convinced it was Telgi.
Telgi had offered millions of rupees to leave the police.
The police team caught Telgi in the Dargah, but the biggest challenge was that if they had arrested him from the Dargah, people could have protested and Karim would have taken advantage of this and run away.
On this the police team asked Telgi to go out with them. Telgi did not protest and accompanied the team to the lounge where he was staying.
During the search of the lounge, the police found Rs 35 lakh, share certificates and gold chain. Telgi had tried to bribe the police to the tune of millions of rupees in exchange for his release. But the police team arrested Telgi and took him to Bengaluru. After this, Telgi could never come out of the prison.
Telgi had tried to bribe the police to the tune of millions of rupees in exchange for his release.
The SIT was formed to investigate the country’s biggest scam
Until the Bengaluru police arrested Telgi, no one knew how big this scam was. After enquiry, it was revealed that this is the biggest scam in the country.
The SIT was constituted on 25 January 2002 to investigate the scam. Here, the SIT was formed after irregularities were discovered in the investigation into the Pune police fake stamp case. Now the entire case was investigated separately by two SITs in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Anna Hazare filed PIL, investigation to CBI
In the investigation of the case against Telgi, names of many big leaders and police officers came up, but no action was taken against anyone. In such a situation Anna Hazare had filed a Public Interest Litigation on 10 June 2003.
After mounting pressure, the then Dhule MLA Anil Gote was arrested in the case on 29 June 2003. This was the first arrest of a politician in the Telgi case.
Following this, on 6 September 2003, Andhra Pradesh MLA Krishna Yadav was arrested by the police. On 1 December 2003, Mumbai Commissioner RS Sharma and SP Mulani were arrested for protecting Telgi. Following this, in August 2004, the investigation of the case was handed over to the CBI.
After his arrest from Ajmer Dargah, Telgi could never come out of the jail.
Names of many ministers in the country were revealed in the drug test.
Narco tests were also conducted on Telgi, the video of which was leaked. In the drug test, Telgi had named former union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal and former Karnataka home minister Roshan Baig in the scam. Telgi had admitted to paying Rs 20 billion to politicians and police officers. After the video went viral, former ministers Sharad Pawar, Roshan Baig and Chhagan Bhujbal had denied these allegations.
The government had to legalize Telgi’s stamp.
All fake stamps sold under this scam must be declared legal by the government. The biggest compulsion behind this was that from 1992 to 2002 Telgi’s stamp was used in most legal agreements in the country. During these 10 years, most of the country’s stamps were printed in Telugu. In such a situation, if declared illegal, all marriages, all contracts, real estate agreements, insurances, etc. made during that period would become illegal. In such a situation, all stamps printed by Telgi must be declared illegal.
Telgi was sentenced to the maximum fine
In 2007, the court sentenced Telgi to 30 years in prison. He was also asked to pay a fine of SEK 202 million. This was the highest fine in the country at the time.
In 1992, the Churu court had sentenced five people, including Telgi, to seven years in prison in the fake stamp and passport case.
Journalist Sanjay Singh, who wrote a book about Telgi’s scam. On which there has recently been a web series.
When the former interior minister threatened the journalist to take off his slippers
Sanjay Singh, who has written a book on Telgi scam, said that one person was the first to give me a full report related to this scam. But that report was so big that I didn’t read it for days. So one day I started reading and I was shocked when I read the report.
This would be the biggest scam in the country. When I exposed this scam, I received threats and was also offered millions of rupees. But I continued my systematic coverage of the scam. At that time, during a press conference, when I asked the former Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra about the scam, he saw me in front of me and threatened to remove his slippers if I asked such a question.
Reporter role will also be seen in the second part of the web series.
Sanjay Singh told me that I had launched the first edition of “Telgi: Reporter Diary” in the year 2004. After this there were many updates in this case, so I launched a new edition of this book in the year 2021.
During this time I met the representatives of Sony Liv. After initial talks, an official announcement was made that Applause Entertainment will produce this web series for Sony Liv and Hansal Mehta will be its showrunner.
After that, I got to sit with the screenwriters in many sessions. In the end, a fantastic series was completed.
Web series will be made on three books
Writer Sanjay Singh said that in his 25-year career as a journalist, he worked in channels like Zee News, NDTV, Times Now, IBN, NewsX. From Telgi scam to many other big scams, he exposed them.
Apart from Telgi, his three other books ‘CIU: Criminals in Uniform’, ‘Ek Thi Sheena Bora’ and ‘Ranga-Billa: Nation Embushred’ are also being made into a web series and will be released in 2024. Sanjay Singh, PhD student and law graduate from Mumbai University , is also associated with many educational institutions as academics.
Part 1: Telgi had bought property in Rajasthan for his girlfriend: 30 thousand million scammers sent Shekhawati youth abroad with fake passport
The web series ‘Scam 2003: The Telgi Story’ made on Abdul Karim Telgi, who perpetrated the biggest Rs 30,000 crore stamp paper scam in the country, is in the news. The scam shown in the series also has its roots in Rajasthan. Telgi, who earned huge wealth, used to send the youth of Shekhawati abroad by making fake degrees and passports. Back then people used to call him “Lala”. (Click to read the full news)
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