We have heard of many cases of fraud and scams. Watched many movies and series on the same as well. But what if I tell you today we are gonna read one such story that shook the country’s economy? A scam so big and advanced that it might have taken the Indian authorities to reach the scammers ten more years, if not for the insider information.
Some of you might have already guessed it, and some of you might haven’t. So today we are gonna study the super interesting and prominent Indian case study – “Telgi scam by Abdul Karim Telgi”. The mastermind behind one of India’s biggest scams. The scam is also popularly known as The Stamp Paper scam. And in the epic part, this scam was of about 32000 crores in Indian Rupees, shocking right?
The history behind Telgi scam
Would you believe me if I said that this scam started in 1992 and came into the limelight in 2003? Took a long to notice, right? Well, it would have been impossible as well. Because the brain that goes behind this scam is not an ordinary one.
Let’s begin with the story,
In 1961, Abdul Telgi was born in Khanapur, a small panchayat town in Belgaum district, Karnataka, which shares Maharashtra borders. He was born to an honest employee of Indian Railways; his father was a Class 4 railway officer. He was a sincere and hardworking officer. However, because of severe illness, Telgi lost his father at a very young age. He has two brothers by his side, Abdul Hazim and Abdul Rahim.
Telgi was not a born scammer. He used to work as a fruit seller in the railway station alongside his brothers to earn his meals. Their livelihood used to depend on this small business. Despite being burdened with responsibility, Telgi completed his education at Belgaum Gogte College of Commerce with a degree in Bachelor of Commerce. He started looking for jobs right after.
As we all know, Mumbai is a city of dreams. Mumbai, Karim got to know that there are many jobs available in Mumbai so he shifted there. He got a job at a company named Fillix India as a sales executive. But soon he lost his job due to his failure to fulfill his targets. He soon found another job as a hotel manager at Kishan Guest House.
Soon after this, he shifted to Saudi Arabia in 1986 to earn more money. He worked there for some years and changed a few jobs. After several unsuccessful attempts and failure at his job, he returned to Mumbai.
How did Telgi start his scam journey?
Abdul Karim Telgi was always interested in quick money. He used to like shortcuts and not hard-earned money. He figured out there are a lot of travel agents in Bombay who make fake passports and Visas and earn a lot.
He started his own company named Arabian Metro Travel. He started getting fake passports and visas for people who wanted to travel Middle East, some of whom were not even eligible. He used to tamper with their documents and continued this for a few years and earned good money. But a few years later, immigration officers caught him red-handed. He was sentenced to prison for some time under the immigration act.
While he was in prison he met many criminal-minded people who influenced him. As we have heard more than one criminal mind can execute a huge fraud together, the same happened with Telgi. He met Ratan Soni there, another criminal who used to deal in stock trading. He started guiding Telgi and suggested he go for a huge scam, rather than these petty crimes.
When did the Telgi Stamp Paper scam come into the picture?
Ratan Soni informed Telgi about how the government stamp paper department is often ignored and not paid much attention to. He suggested that Telgi should start working with him. Stamp paper is a common legal document that requires many legal formalities and procedures. A huge fraud can take place if they start with fake stamp papers.
With the idea of Ratan Soni, both Soni and Telgi started printing fake stamp paper. But how did they do it?
After they got released from prison, they started working on this scam. They knew this scam couldn’t be done alone and started connecting with Politicians, Government officials, and some of the underworld people.
In 1994, they applied for a Stamp Vending License to avoid any front-end doubts about them. There is a printing press in Nashik, Maharashtra, where these stamp papers are printed. When these machines are of no use and are damaged, they auction them or scrap them off. Abdul Karim Telgi started buying this machinery and bought the same dye and special paper used for printing, after getting an idea from some people from Indian Security Press India.
Now both Telgi and the Indian Security Press have the same instruments and technology to print the stamp papers. Because of this, it became difficult to recognize fake vs real stamp paper. The only difference was the legality between the papers. The legal stamp papers were printed by the government, meanwhile, Telgi used to print illegal and fake stamp papers.
Telgi was already working on many other scams alongside. But when he noticed that the stamp paper scam was getting him more money, he stopped his other fraudulent work. Soon after, Telgi and Ratan Soni parted ways because of some differences.
After the separation, Telgi started working on fake stamp papers on his own and started working on this fraud as his organization. He started printing fake stamp paper, revenue stamps, Non-judicial stamps, Notarial Stamps, Broker notes, Share Transfer certificates, Insurance agency stamps, etc. He even hired 350 employees to work under him on this huge scam. These employees were not even aware that they were a part of a fraudulent job.
Why were people not buying original stamp paper?
Telgi started selling these stamp papers to Banks, Insurance Companies, Stock Brokerage firms, and other big businesses in bulk. He offered a huge discount on it, because of which many other big firms started approaching him to buy stamp papers on their own.
Not only this, Telgi started creating a shortage of real stamp paper in the market, so that he could sell more. He took the help of some corrupt officials to hold the real stamp papers at the wrong addresses. This strategy increased his sales of fake stamp papers. He covered 18 states and sold stamp paper worth 32000 crores.
How did Telgi get caught?
It was not easy to catch this mastermind, but in the year 2000, Banglore Police got a hint that two people were transporting fake stamp papers. They conducted a raid and got hold of the fake stamp papers. Upon inspection, they understood the level of this scam based on how real these papers were.
Eventually, the two people opened up about Abdul Karim Telgi upon investigation. The police tapped Telgi’s call recordings and got to know the mastermind behind this scam. Before the authorities could hold Telgi, he was already underground. But he was arrested in Ajmer.
Upon interrogation, the depth of the scam was understood, and a Special Investigation Team was formed to work on the case. SIT enquired and realized that this is a huge scam that has been on board since 1994. Because of this Telgi has already acquired about forty properties in the country and spread his fraud business to a core level.
As per the reports prepared by SIT, Nashik India Security Press officials and many other politicians were involved in the fraud. They provided devices and technology to Telgi. Despite this report, there was no action taken against these officials.
Some of the politicians included Anil Gote from Samajwadi Janta Party, who was imprisoned for four years but released later. During the Narco test of Abdul Karim Telgi, he named different politicians, like Sharad Pawar from NCP. But a lot of chaos happened because of this test and many authorities claimed that the test was invalid.
Many police officers were also involved in this case. Some officers from Mumbai Police asked the department that they would search Telgi’s flat, but later found enjoying at his flat along with Telgi. In fact, during the investigation, Inspector Pratap Kakde died mysteriously.
After this the case was transferred to CBI but nothing happened. However in the year 2006, Telgi was sentenced to prison for 30 years and was imposed with a fine of 202 crores (which is one of the largest fines imposed on any criminal to date). Some of Telgi’s accomplices were also arrested with him.
Later on, his punishment was reduced to 13 years, but while serving his sentence, he died mysteriously in the year 2017. Again a lot of controversy took place on his death, as some claimed it was a murder, while some said it was natural. The entire case was closed after his death.
This was the whole case history of the famous Telgi stamp paper scam. Let us know what you learned from this story.