telgi's story
Telgi's rise and fall
June 29, 2007
MRITYUNJAY BOSE
For Abdul Karim Laadsaab Telgi, it may be the proverbial rags to riches story, but his mercurial rise in the murky and shady world had been cut short by the Indian prosecution and judicial system. Today, the 47-year-old Telgi, who suffers from a life-threatening disease, is languishing in jail – not in one case, but in several cases.
He worked up the ladder – but has always been on the wrong side of the law. Born in 1961, Telgi was a street smart by and is proficient in Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi, Urdu and Telgu.
Born in Karnataka's Bijapur district, he hailed from Telgi village and hence his surname. He started his education in Telgi, but later shifted to Belgaum. His father was a railway employee and the family had gone through difficult times. After his father died, the responsibility of the family fell on him. He passed his matriculation, however, to support his family, he used to sell fruits at the Khanapur railway station. He simultaneously completed his graduation in commerce stream.
Aim to earn fast bucks brought him to Mumbai, however, with great difficulty he mustered courage and money and rented a shop at Crawford Market and started a travel agency and started supplying manpower overseas. During this period, he also traveled to several Gulf countries and started minting money. But in the meanwhile, in 1991, he was arrested in a case of forgery and had to visit jail few times – and during one of these occasions he met Ramratan Soni, who ultimately became his guru.
Soni was a share broker and was arrested in connection of forging share documents – and from him only Telgi learnt the art of forging judicial and non-judicial stamp papers. Subsequently, he also started working as a manager in a guesthouse and here he met Sahida Begum, who he later married. As far as his racket was concerned, he first started removing the ink from old stamp papers and selling again, but since the margins was less, he come out with the idea of producing stamp papers itself.
He eyed on Nashik-based India Security Press and purchased an old printing machine as a scrap. In laymen's terms, except for currency notes, all other legal tenders like postal stamps, revenue stamps, judicial and non-judicial papers and share transfer papers were printed here. When he purchased the machine, he also laid hands on some blocks as well. He started printing all these and even employed marketing agents and executives. He also sold stamps to banks and financial institutions. He also allegedly established contacts with underworld elements.
While he minted money, he also spent lavishly. Television journalist Sanjay Singh, who exposed the Telgi scandal, in his book 'Telgi Scam: Reporter ki Dairy' has mention that in 1996 in a famous dance bar in Mumbai, he spent nearly Rs 80 lakh on a dancer named Muskan. He also brought a haveli for her in Rajasthan.
Telgi's empire on fake stamp papers are spread across at least 11 states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Goa, Bihar and so on and this went on for nearly three to four years undetected. According to estimates, the racket ran into nearly Rs 32,000 crore – thereby giving a blow to the Indian economy itself – with his parallel system.
He also invested in television and films, investigations have revealed. From jail also, he used to run his empire. Of the cases detected, the biggest was the Bung Garden case, in which the police recovered nearly Rs 2,200 crore stamp papers. The final blow to him came from SIT-Maharashtra and STAMPIT-Karnataka, which went deep into the case. During the course of investigations, he also named some politicians as part of the racket.
June 29, 2007
MRITYUNJAY BOSE
For Abdul Karim Laadsaab Telgi, it may be the proverbial rags to riches story, but his mercurial rise in the murky and shady world had been cut short by the Indian prosecution and judicial system. Today, the 47-year-old Telgi, who suffers from a life-threatening disease, is languishing in jail – not in one case, but in several cases.
He worked up the ladder – but has always been on the wrong side of the law. Born in 1961, Telgi was a street smart by and is proficient in Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi, Urdu and Telgu.
Born in Karnataka's Bijapur district, he hailed from Telgi village and hence his surname. He started his education in Telgi, but later shifted to Belgaum. His father was a railway employee and the family had gone through difficult times. After his father died, the responsibility of the family fell on him. He passed his matriculation, however, to support his family, he used to sell fruits at the Khanapur railway station. He simultaneously completed his graduation in commerce stream.
Aim to earn fast bucks brought him to Mumbai, however, with great difficulty he mustered courage and money and rented a shop at Crawford Market and started a travel agency and started supplying manpower overseas. During this period, he also traveled to several Gulf countries and started minting money. But in the meanwhile, in 1991, he was arrested in a case of forgery and had to visit jail few times – and during one of these occasions he met Ramratan Soni, who ultimately became his guru.
Soni was a share broker and was arrested in connection of forging share documents – and from him only Telgi learnt the art of forging judicial and non-judicial stamp papers. Subsequently, he also started working as a manager in a guesthouse and here he met Sahida Begum, who he later married. As far as his racket was concerned, he first started removing the ink from old stamp papers and selling again, but since the margins was less, he come out with the idea of producing stamp papers itself.
He eyed on Nashik-based India Security Press and purchased an old printing machine as a scrap. In laymen's terms, except for currency notes, all other legal tenders like postal stamps, revenue stamps, judicial and non-judicial papers and share transfer papers were printed here. When he purchased the machine, he also laid hands on some blocks as well. He started printing all these and even employed marketing agents and executives. He also sold stamps to banks and financial institutions. He also allegedly established contacts with underworld elements.
While he minted money, he also spent lavishly. Television journalist Sanjay Singh, who exposed the Telgi scandal, in his book 'Telgi Scam: Reporter ki Dairy' has mention that in 1996 in a famous dance bar in Mumbai, he spent nearly Rs 80 lakh on a dancer named Muskan. He also brought a haveli for her in Rajasthan.
Telgi's empire on fake stamp papers are spread across at least 11 states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Goa, Bihar and so on and this went on for nearly three to four years undetected. According to estimates, the racket ran into nearly Rs 32,000 crore – thereby giving a blow to the Indian economy itself – with his parallel system.
He also invested in television and films, investigations have revealed. From jail also, he used to run his empire. Of the cases detected, the biggest was the Bung Garden case, in which the police recovered nearly Rs 2,200 crore stamp papers. The final blow to him came from SIT-Maharashtra and STAMPIT-Karnataka, which went deep into the case. During the course of investigations, he also named some politicians as part of the racket.
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