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Telgi scam

The Telgi stamp scam can be dubbed as the mother of all scams and many cannot

resist saying it happens only in India. Its ramifications run deep and cover over 12

states with Maharashtra leading the way. It has left its stamp of shame on the top

 police brass, politicians and bureaucrats. Today a number of them, including the ex-

 police commissioner of police, Mumbai are languishing in jails along with the

kingpin, and state’s strong man resigned as cries to boot him out reached a crescendo.

Abdul Karim Lad Saab Telgi’s story is that of the rags to the riches. He started by

selling articles on the Belgaum platform and trains to make out a living and educated

himself and by doing a petty job. He struck gold when he plunged into printing and

selling fake stamps. His operations lasted for nearly a decade and during this period he

was able to keep the law at bay by bribing the powers that pulled the strings.

He started be doing what has been even impossible to think of. He penetrated the

confines of Indian Government’s Nashik Security Press where millions of crores

worth court stamp papers and printed in connivance with the top officials. He bought

scrap stamp printing presses in working conditions, installed them in his Mumbai

Press and began printing and selling stamp papers.

What helped and boosted his sales was that by pulling his political strings he

succeeded in getting a stamp vendors license. This enabled him to sell in bulk to top

companies and banks. Soon his growing money power gained him so much clout at

Mumbai Stamp Office that for long periods they feigned shortage of stamps, allowing

Telgi’s men to sell stamps at a premium outside the stamp office.

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Today, many are paying the police of their falling prey to Telgi’s bribes and Telgi to

who has amassed a fortune is down with aids and in jail but this time without the

luxuries of a cell phone or hotel stay. Today’s watch worth is “No Telgi Ghee only

 butter”

Though the racket had come to light in 1995 those whose duty was to expose and

 bring the guilty to booth engaged them in cover-up and apparently allowed him to run

the racket from his cell by providing him the cell phone.

Finally, it was the patience and perseverance of one man, the indefatigable Anna

Hazare who filled a public interest petition in the high court. This brought things into

the open and exposed the role of police and politicians and under the court’s order the

state government was forced to set up S.I.T who’s findings have sealed the fate by

many top brass and even made the central government to sit up and take action.

Key Players

Abdul Karim Lad Saab Telgi

The main suspect in the fake stamp paper racket is a native of Belgaum district in

Karnataka. He began as a vendor in a small railway station before coming to Mumbai.

A meeting with a forger eventually led him to the stamp and stamp papers business

where demand forever exceeded supply. He capitalized on this by printing duplicates.

 No one has determined the extent of his business or the loss to the exchequer, but it is

 believed to run into thousands of crores.

Arrested in 2001, Telgi is now behind bars in Karnataka.

Among those who reportedly helped Telgi were several politicians, policemen and

 bureaucrats.

Two MLAs - Anil Gote (Dhule, Maharashtra) and Krishna Yadav (Himayat Nagar,

Andhra Pradesh) - have been arrested and charged under the Maharashtra Control of

Organized Crime Act.

Apparently, Gote helped Telgi get a stamp vendor's license using a recommendation

from former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Yadav, it is believed demanded Rs 2 crore to protect his illegal business.

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Though Telgi's business empire was controlled from

Mumbai, the Maharashtra government never showed much enthusiasm to expose or

end the racket.

 Noted social reformer Anna Hazare filed a PIL in the Bombay high court to force the

state government to act.

Today, the investigation is out of the hands of the state government and is monitored

 by the court. Some believe that to be reason for the arrest of some very high profile

 people.

On the court's orders, retired additional DGP Sukhwinder Singh Puri was appointed

head of the Special Investigation Team probing the racket, as its then chief, DIG

Subodh Jaiswal, was junior to cops who were under scrutiny.

Known as 'Justice Puri’ in police circles, Puri enjoys the reputation of being an upright

officer. It was after he entered the picture that the accused began emerging from the

shadows. He has shunned the media glare and steadfastly stuck to his work.

Former Mumbai police commissioner R S Sharma is the highest-ranking officer to be

arrested so far. The SIT says he did not maintain absolute integrity in the investigation

into the scam. Even at the time of his appointment, Sharma was plagued with

allegations of bribing his way to the top post.

 Now the telgi scam has intensified the conflict between the congress and the NCP

 parties, the two leading partners in the democratic front government, with chief

ministers Shinde unable to decide the course of action against the Mumbai police

commissioner Ranjeet Sharma for his alleged role in the Rs. 3000 crore fake stamp

 paper scam.

Political observers, however, set the DF leaders are desperately hacking out a face-

saving formula, which would seemingly show that the chief minister has taken

decisive action against Sharma and at the same time, insures not to antagonize

 bhujbal, who belongs to the NCP.

Already the opposition Shivsena- BJP combine has demanded Bhujbals resignation

accusing him of shielding corrupt police officers involved in the multi crore stamp.

Meanwhile there are indications that a new police chief in the next few days would

replace Sharma. Sources say that Sharma may be side lined as an additional director

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general in the state Police. VN Deshmuk, commissioner of state intellegince

department, is most likely to be the new police chief said a Mantralay offical, “some

officers have begun lobbying with senior politicians in Maharashtra and New delhi to

get elite posting in Mumbai.”

However, Political sources said that the state government would ensure that a good

officer is posted in Mumbai as the image of the city police has taken a severe drubbing

in the past two days.

  Retired ACP M C Mulani (small pic, left) reportedly demanded a bribe from

Telgi. Despite knowing this, Sharma let him continue in the team investigating

the scam.

  IGP Sridhar Vagal is the second highest ranking officer to be arrested. Among

other things, he reportedly allowed Telgi a free rein even when he was in police

custody. At that time, Vagal was working under Sharma in Mumbai.

  Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal finds himself in a soup

 because he had appointed Sharma as Mumbai police chief. Even at that time, it

was known that Sharma's role in the racket was not entirely above board.He has often found himself isolated where this racket is concerned with no support

forthcoming from his party, Nationalist Congress Party, either.

There is no talk of any connection between him and Telgi as yet, but until Sharma is

absolved, Bhujbal will continue to be viewed with suspicion.

Government Reactions

EX-Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said the value of the fake stamp papers recovered

 by various investigative agencies was Rs 3,376 crores.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on a calling attention motion on the stamp paper scam, the

minister said the agencies had registered 74 cases in this connection, with 15 against

chief accused Abdul Karim Telgi.

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Singh said while several figures had been given out on the value of the scam, they

were all speculative. He added since most of the stamp duties were payable to state

governments, the loss of revenue for the Center had been very little.

He said the government would recognize as genuine all transactions executed on

stamp papers within the country. He said, “There will be no legal  infirmity on any

such documents and, if necessary, the government will introduce a Bill in the House.”

Singh said the new stamp papers with improved security features would be available

across the country by July 2004. The minister said the government was committed to

find a remedy to the problem and said a number of measures were under way “to

eliminate the virus”.

The minister acknowledged that the full contours of the scam were not visible to him

when Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna wrote to him last year.

But by March 2003, the finance ministry had written to all the chief ministers asking

them to name officials who could be involved in circulating fake stamp paper.

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Bofors scandal

The Bofors scandal was a major  corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s;

initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and

several others who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning

a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer.  The scale of the corruption was far

worse than any that India had seen before and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's

ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. It has

 been speculated that the scale of the scandal was to the tune of 4000 million

rupees. The case came to light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence

minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism by Chitra

Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the  Indian Express and The Hindu. 

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The middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi,  an Italian

 businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was

reportedly close to the family of Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the

1980s between big businesses and the Indian government. While the case was being

investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 for an unrelated cause

 by the LTTE. In 1997, the Swiss banks released some 500 documents after years of

legal battle and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case against

Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a

number of others. In the meantime, Win Chadha also died.

Meanwhile February 5, 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery

against Rajiv Gandhi and others, but the case is still being tried on charges of

cheating, causing wrongful loss to the government, etc. On May 31, 2005, the High

Court of Delhi dismissed the Bofors case allegations against the British business

 brothers, Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja,  but charges against others

remain.

In December 2005, Mr B. Daat, the additional solicitor general of India, acting on

 behalf of the Indian Government and the CBI, requested the British Government that

two British bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi be unfrozen on the grounds of

insufficient evidence to link these accounts to the Bofors payoff. The two accounts,

containing € 3 million and $1 million, had been frozen. On January 16, the Indian

Supreme Court directed the Indian government to ensure that Ottavio Quattrocchi did

not withdraw money from the two bank accounts in London. The CBI, the Indian

federal law enforcement agency, on January 23, 2006 admitted that roughly Rs

21 crore, about US $4.6 million, in the two accounts have already been withdrawn by

the accused. The British government released the funds later. The deals cost

the Government of India an extra 160 crore rupees. 

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However, on January 16, 2006, CBI claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme

Court that they were still pursuing extradition orders for Quattrocchi. The Interpol, at

the request of the CBI, has a long-standing red corner notice to arrest

Quattrocchi. Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February 2007, but the news

of his detention was released by the CBI only on 23 February. Quattrocchi was

released by Argentinian police. However, his passport was impounded and he was not

allowed to leave the country.

However, as there was no extradition treaty between India and Argentina, the case

was presented in the Argentine Supreme Court. The government of India lost the

extradition case as the government of India did not provide a key court order which

was the basis of Quattrochi's arrest. In the aftermath, the government did not appeal

this decision because of delays in securing an official English translation of the court's

decision.

A Delhi court provided temporary relief for Quattrocchi from the case, for lack of

sufficient evidence against him, on 4 March 2011. However the case is still going on.

Despite the controversy the Bofors gun was used extensively as the primary field

artillery during the Kargil dispute with Pakistan and gave India 'an edge' against

Pakistan according to battlefield commanders.

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The Fodder Scam

If you haven’t heard of Bihar’s fodder scam of 1996, you might still be able to

recognize it by the name of “Chara Ghotala ,” as it is popularly known in the

vernacular language.

In this corruption scandal worth Rs.900 crore, an unholy nexus was traced involved in

fabrication of “vast herds of fictitious livestock” for which fodder, medicine and

animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.

Among those implicated in the theft and arrested were then Chief Minister of

Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav,  as well as former Chief Minister, Jagannath Mishra. 

The scandal led to the end of Laloo's reign as Chief Minister.

The theft spanned many years, and allegedly involved numerous Bihar state's

administrative and elected officials across multiple administrations of the Indian

 National Congress and theJanata Dal parties. The corruption scheme involved the

fabrication of "vast herds of fictitious livestock" for which fodder, medicines

and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured. Although the scandal

 broke in 1996, the theft had been in progress, and increased in size, for over two

decades. Besides the magnitude and duration of the theft, the scam was and continues

to be covered in Indian media due to the extensive nexus between tenured bureaucrats,

elected politicians and businesspeople that it revealed, and as an example of the  mafiaraj that has penetrated several state-run economic sectors in the country.

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The scam

The scam had its origins in small-scale embezzlement by some government

employees submitting false expense reports, which grew in magnitude and drew

additional elements, such as politicians and businesses, over time, until a full-fledged

mafia had formed. Jagannath Mishra, who served his first stint as the chief minister of

Bihar in the mid-1970s, was the earliest chief minister to be accused of knowing

involvement in the scam.

In February 1985, the then Comptroller and Auditor General of India, T.N.

Chaturvedi,  took notice of delayed monthly account submissions by the Bihar state

treasury and departments and wrote to the then Bihar chief minister, ChandrashekharSingh, warning him that this could be indicative of temporary embezzlement. This

initiated a continuous chain of closer scrutiny and warnings by Principal Accountant

Generals (PAGs) and CAGs to the Bihar government across the tenures of multiple

chief ministers (cutting across party affiliations), but the warnings were ignored in a

manner that was suggestive of a pattern by extremely senior political and bureaucratic

officials in the Bihar government. In 1992, Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi, a police inspector

with the state's anti-corruption vigilance unit submitted a report outlining the fodder

scam and likely involvement at the chief ministerial level to the director general of the

same vigilance unit, G. Narayan. In alleged reprisal, Dvivedi was transferred out of

the vigilance unit to a different branch of the administration, and then suspended from

his position. He was later to be a witness as corruption cases relating to the scam went

to trial, and reinstated by order of the Jharkhand High Court. 

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Exposure and Investigation

Laloo Prasad Yadav, then chief minister of  Bihar, was a prime accused in the fodder

scam investigation.

On January 27, 1996, the deputy commissioner of  West Singhbhum district, Amit

Khare, acted on information to conduct a raid on the offices of the animal husbandry

department in the town of  Chaibasa in the district under his authority. The documentshis team seized, and went public with, conclusively indicated large-scale

embezzlement by an organized mafia of officials and businesspeople. Laloo ordered

the constitution of a committee to probe the irregularities. There were fears that state

 police, which is accountable to the state administration, and the probe committee

would not investigate the case vigorously, and demands were raised to transfer the

case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is under federal rather than

state jurisdiction. Allegations were also made that several of the probe committee

members were themselves complicit in the scam. A public interest litigation was filed

with the Supreme Court of India, which led to the court's involvement, and based on

the ultimate directions issued by the supreme court, on March 1996, the Bihar High

Court ordered that the case be handed over to the CBI.

An inquiry by the CBI began and, within days, the CBI filed a submission to the High

Court that Bihar officials and legislators were blocking access to documents that couldreveal the existence of a politician-official-business mafia nexus at work. Some

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legislators of the Bihar  Legislative Council responded by claiming the court had been

misinformed by the CBI and initiating a privilege motion to discuss possible action

against senior figures in the regional headquarters of the CBI, which could proceed

similar to a  contempt of court proceeding and result in stalling the investigation or

even prosecution of the named CBI officials. However, U N Biswas, the regional CBI

director, and the other officials tendered an unqualified apology to the Legislative

Council, the privilege motion was dropped, and the CBI probe continued. As the

investigation proceeded, the CBI unearthed linkages to the serving chief minister of

Bihar ,Laloo Prasad Yadav and, on May 10, 1997, made a formal request to the

federally-appointed governor of Bihar to prosecute Laloo (who is often referred by his

first name in Indian media). On the same day, a businessman, Harish Khandelwal,

who was one of the accused was found dead on train tracks with a note that stated that

he was being coerced by the CBI to turn witness for the prosecution. The CBI rejected

the charge and its local director, U N Biswas, kept the appeal to the governor in place.

Impact

Since it broke into public light, the fodder scam has become symbolic of bureaucratic

corruption and the criminalization of politics in India generally, and in Bihar in

 particular. It has been called a symptom of the "deep and chronic malady afflicting the

Bihar government and quite a few other state governments as well."[50] In the Indian

 parliament,  it was cited as an important indicator of the deep inroads made by mafia

rajin the politics and economics of the country.[51] Reference has also been made to

the anarchic nature of governance (the "withering away of the state") that occurs when

a mafia develops in a state-controlled sector of the economy.[52] 

Laloo Prasad Yadav is the only person on whom the  Lok Sabha debated for a

complete session as the official agenda.

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IPL scam

The Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL) is a professional league for

Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for

Cricket in India (BCCI). The scam is complicated to an extent that makes us doubt if

IPL itself was created for money laundering.

BCCI officials involved

  Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner  

Politicians involved

Sharad Pawar family

Sharad Pawar and his immediate family held over 16% equity in one of the bidders for

an IPL cricket team. The Pawars own 33.6 lakh shares (out of 2.07 crore shares) in

City Corporation, a Pune-based construction company which bid Rs 1,176 crore for a

franchise in March. The Pawar family's shares are held through two companies, Lap

Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Namratta Film Enterprises Pvt Ltd, which are

100% owned by the NCP supremo and Union agriculture minister, his wife Pratibha

and daughter Supriya Sule.

Interestingly before the details emerged, Pawars claimed as miles away from IPL and

 bidding.

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Shashi Tharoor

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's friend (later his wife) Sunanda

Pushkar had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), heading the

consortium that owns the Kochi team. It was later disclosed that Pushkar got sweat

equity of the value of Rs 70 crore. Shashi Tharoor maintained that the amount had

nothing to do with his active campaigning and mentoring for the Kochi team. This

was less convincing as he had specifically mentioned that he had no specific gains

from RSW winning Kochi Franchisee.

The Prime minister Manmohan Singh later demanded his resignation.

Praful Patel

Praful Patel was accused of meddling in the auctioning of the franchisees.

Corporates and celebrities involved

  Multi Screen Media or Sony Entertainment Television

  World Sports Group

  International Management Group

  Raj Kundra

  Shahrukh Khan

  Preity Zinta

Broadcast deal

In 2008, WSG bagged IPL television rights for 10 years with a USD 918 million bid

and a promise to spend USD 108 million on the event. It also signed a deal with MSMmaking Sony the official broadcaster. However, two months before IPL-2, the deal

was scrapped. It was recast with MSM agreeing to pay USD 1.63 billion for nine

years.

According to I-T sources, MSM agreed to pay WSG's offshore company in Mauritius

a "facilitation fee" of 7.5 per cent of the IPL contract, which is around USD 80

million. On April 14, 2009, MSM remitted, from the Development Bank of Singapore

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to WSG USD 15.3 million and on June 26, 2009, USD 10.276 million in two separate

installments.

Match fixing

Income Tax investigation report into match-fixing angle in the IPL revealed Lalit

Modi has interests in three teams. The report goes on to name Samir Thakral as front

for Lalit Modi whose phone records show conversations with bookies. Serious

investigations were on into possible match-fixing and betting in IPL Season 2 which

took place in South Africa. The entire investigation now seems to be honing in on

IPL 2. Income Tax investigation wing has filed a confidential report to the finance

ministry.

Several IPL players could have been involved. There were indications that phone

conversations have also been recorded and that possible questioning of IPL players

could happen in this regard.

Money laundering

IPL is a major source for some individuals or parties to bring that money from Swiss

 banks to India for utilize it in investing in various business firms. NRI, Non resident

Indian play an important role in this conversion. If we analyze the owners of IPL

teams , then we can see huge NRI presence in shareholders. As per laws in India, an

 NRI can bring tons of money through his account to invest in India without any

 barrier or using some simple formalities. Mauritius is top among these because an

investing NRI in Mauritius can bring huge amount of money from any Swiss Bank

account to their operating account in Mauritius. Then the NRI transfer the money to

India through his/her NRI bank account in India and invest in Indian business firms.

Due to this IPL became an easy way to turn “BLACK MONEY” to “WHITE”.  

The Income Tax department had received financial details of more than Rs 150 crore

in overseas accounts from some tax haven countries of "non- residents" who invested

in the IPL. The information regarding investments and remittances to the tune of about

Rs 150 crore in IPL media rights has been received from British Virgin Islands and

Mauritius.

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