After the critically-acclaimed docuseries Rip-off 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, SonyLiv is again with one more installment within the ‘Rip-off’ franchise. Directed by Hansal Mehta and Tushar Hiranandani, the upcoming sequence is predicated on the true story of Abdul Karim Telgi who pulled off certainly one of India’s largest scams by printing faux stamp paper.
The present is tailored from a ebook Reporter ki Diary, written by journalist Sanjay Singh.
Who’s Abdul Karim Telgi
Abdul Karim Telgi hailed from a decrease middle-class household within the small city of Khanapur in Karnataka. As a baby, Telgi began taking on odd jobs for a dwelling after the demise of his father who labored with the Indian Railways. Telgi, alongside along with his mom and brothers, would supply fruits and promote them on the Khanapur railway station. He later labored on the railway canteen additionally to complement his revenue.
Apart from fending for his household, Telgi additionally labored exhausting to pay for his personal training. He accomplished his Class X from the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya English Medium Excessive College in Khanapur and joined the Gogte School of Commerce, Belgaum, from the place he accomplished his BCom in 1984. Later, he moved to Saudi Arabia in the hunt for a job, however quickly returned after attempting his hand at a few jobs, in keeping with stories.
He then moved to Mumbai in the hunt for higher prospects the place he grew to become concerned with a racket that bought faux passports and immigration clearance papers to labourers searching for jobs within the Gulf international locations. He was first arrested on prices of forgery in 1991, The Quint reported.
Telgi and Soni
After serving his sentence, Telgi moved on to develop into the kingpin of a a lot larger racket that unfold throughout the nation within the Nineties. In jail, Telgi had befriended Ram Ratan Soni a stockbroker who was serving time for forging share papers. It was Soni who launched him to the world of stamp papers and sowed the seeds for the large rip-off that later shocked the nation.
As soon as they stepped out from jail, the duo collaborated and made use of Soni’s broad community of connections with authorities officers in addition to the underworld.
Telgi, the mastermind behind the faux stamp paper rip-off, orchestrated the crime in two steps—he first created a scarcity of stamp papers within the nation after which used the chance to promote his faux papers price hundreds of crores. A probe revealed that Telgi joined arms with a number of officers from the Indian Safety Press in Nashik to create the bogus scarcity, which he used to develop his racket all through the nation.
For context, stamp papers, formally issued by the federal government, are available in varied denominations starting from Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 100, Rs 500 and so forth. These stamp papers, bought via registered distributors, are used as proof of settlement in authorized or monetary transactions. A sure proportion of the transaction payment goes to the federal government exchequer.
The racket
The Telgi rip-off, pegged at Rs 30,000 crore, was unfold throughout a number of states since 1995. Although the operations had been centred in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it will definitely unfold to Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, Frontline acknowledged in a report.
Based on stories, Telgi would initially washed cancelled stamp papers with sure chemical compounds—making them look pretty much as good as new. He would then promote these via his community of officers. He later introduced outdated printing equipment with the assistance of his contacts on the Indian Safety Press in Nashik and began producing counterfeit stamp papers. Based on a number of stories, Telgi even colluded with prime politicians and bureaucrats to develop his operations.
Arrest and demise
Hassle began for Telgi in 2001, when the Karnataka police traced a stamp paper fraud to Telgi. After an identical seizure of counterfeit stamps in Pune in 2002, all consideration was on Telgi. Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare additionally pushed for Telgi’s arrest and filed a public curiosity litigation within the Bombay Excessive Court docket in 2003. The court-appointed Particular Investigation Staff (SIT) went on to arrest 54 individuals concerned within the multi-state racket, Indian Categorical reported.
The CBI, which then took over the probe, submitted its charge-sheet in 2004. Telgi was convicted in 2007, and sentenced to 30 years in jail and a advantageous of Rs 202 crore.
Telgi, nevertheless, was troubled with AIDS a lot earlier than his arrest. He died of a number of organ failure in a Mumbai hospital in 2017.
