Court convicts Telgi, six others in fake stamp paper scam

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday convicted the kingpin of multi-crore fake stamp paper scam Abdul Karim Telgi and six others after they admitted their guilt in the case relating to recovery of counterfeit stamp papers of the face value Rs 2.5 crore from the capital.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal held Telgi, lodged in a Bangalore jail, guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating among other provisions of Indian Penal Code.

Telgi and his co-accused Deepak Kudale, Mansoor Ahmed, Laxman, Pramod and Khatan Shah were produced before the court through video-conferencing from the Bangalore jail.

Another accused Sohail Khan appeared before the court through video-conferencing from a Pune jail.

R M Tufail and Anwar Khan, counsel for the accused, said they wanted to plead guilty in the case as they have already completed about seven years of prison term during their judicial custody.

All the accused also made their oral submissions, admitting their guilt in the case.

The court, taking their plea into consideration, fixed the matter for April 23 for pronouncing the order on sentence against them.

Delhi Police arrested Sohail and Mansoor in August, 2001, following the recovery fake stamp papers of the face value of Rs 2.5 crore. The matter was later handed over to CBI for probe in view of its enromity.