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Abdul Karim Telgi from Belgaum in Karnataka is the main accused in the major Telgi scam which is worth more than 43,000 crores. The scam involved the printing and circulation of duplicate stamps and stamp papers. The Telgi scam also involved senior police officials and politicians who have aided Abdul Karim Telgi to develop this multi crores business. In the year 2003, Abdul Karim Telgi started printing fake stamp paper and also along with this appointed nearly 300 agents for selling the duplicate stamp papers to bulk purchasers like banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and share broking firms. The Indian economy was very badly affected by the Telgi scam which was spread across 72 towns and 18 States in a very short span of ten years.Many states especially more of South Indian states have been very badly affected by the Telgi scam due to loss of huge revenues.


This operation had no system and flourished on the splintery high minded fabric of the establishment and its political background making obvious the sparseness of the system. The Telgi scam had left behind a series of very unpleasant events that every party is trying to make up. The Telgi scam is also another episode which clearly pictures the accountability of officials and political leaders. A shortage of stamp paper engineered with the help of a few officials of the Indian Security Press at Nashik enabled Telgi to expand his illegal business throughout the country. Telgi had appointed lot of agents in the South and especially one agent named Sheik Waheed who worked to explore the loopholes or inadequacies in the law and when the right time emerged Telgi and his team established a well- knitted network in at least four different states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

However the appendage of the Telgi scam was also reported to be penetrated in twelve different states. At least twelve cases was registered in the state of Maharashtra relating to counterfeit stamps and nearly 15 other cases related to the same Telgi was charge sheeted in other parts of the country. Even after the registration of the cases there were no serious action taken by the police on behalf of this which very clearly stated that the scamster had mastered the technique of corrupting the system. This also does not mean that the police was corrupted nor the politicians were involved in paving way for the deals of the scamster but instead there are also records which clearly state that there were lot of illegal support from various other organizations and departments of the Government which were helping in the production and the selling of the high security stamps.

The more shocking news is that most of these government organizations and the institutions were not questioned on this regard at all. The Jaiswal report which was headed by a special investigation team to probe on this scam was also not able to get answers for the questions. The Jaiswal report was very keen on knowing why the Telgi scam which was a shocking economic crime was not given to the entrustment of a specialized agency such as the CID (crime), the CBI, or at least to a dedicated team of officers with personal rectitude and honest and excellent record. It was social activist Anna Hazare who filed a litigation and on behalf of the public interest insisted on this special investigation team to draft the Jaiswal report which had narrowed to a number of top heads both in the police department and political field. But for a long time the distribution of the counterfeit stamps through different well built network was going quite steady.

Telgi's methodology was that he used a special type of chemical to wash the cancelled stamp papers. Once the stamp papers were washed it used to give a fresh look after which they were sold at even discount prices by his network of people to big corporations such as Indian Oil or the Life Insurance Corporation. He also in fact educated few officials at the Security Press in Nashik and also he went to the extent of using the government machinery to print stamp paper. Soon he bought some of the machinery to print stamp paper. It is very shocking to know that how the government security press in Nashik can do so where they auctioned quite a number of presses without even dismantling and removing the dyes. Adding to the heat is that the official who was involved in the auction was promoted and recommended by the then cabinet Minister Mr. Ram Jethmalani and ordered by the then Finace Minister Mr. Yashwant Sinha.

Disclaimer: This web page explains the scams that occurred in India. The information are collected from the media reports. www.indianmirror.com or it owners do not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the contents. Since some cases are in the court of law, we do not endorse any cases or do not conclude on the same. If you need any changes to be done on the above information, kindly contact us with valid proof. However sincere attempt is being made to create awareness in the society against this evil and to prepare the younger generation for a corruption free India.