Prime accused in the multi-crore fake stamp paper case Abdul Karim Telgi and two of his accomplices were sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by the special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Bhopal.
The judge found Telgi, Shabbir Ahmed Sheikh and Sohail Khan guilty under section of 120-B of Indian Penal Code pertaining to criminal conspiracy and IPC section 255 dealing with counterfeiting of government stamp papers and imposed fine of Rs five lakh on each of them in each count, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi on Monday.
"The court also found the three accused persons guilty under section 69 of Indian Stamp Act read with 120B and imposed sentences of 6 months rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 500. The sentences are to run concurrently," he said. The CBI had registered two fake stamp paper cases in 2004 on the orders of Supreme Court.
"In one case, Jagjeevan Yadav, proprietor of Malwa Enterprises, Indore allegedly supplied 200 forged stamps at the rate of Rs 50 worth Rs 10,000 to State Bank of India, Dhar on May 1 and June 7 in the year 2000. The payments for the same were made through demand draft to the company. However, he was not authorized for sale of stamp paper," he said.
Yadav had also supplied forged and fake stamp and stamp papers to various institutions in the district, causing wrongful loss to the state government, the spokesperson said. "In another case it was alleged that Giriraj Prasad Bhatnagar, Manager Bank of India, Simrol Branch was contacted by two employees of Malwa Enterprises during June 2000 and was informed that they were working for Sohail Khan, Abdul Gafoor Mujahid, Karim and Ashfaq," he said.
The above mentioned two employees of the said firm offered to supply special adhesive stamps and non-judicial stamp papers to the bank in its premises only, he said. "Judicial Stamp Papers and Non-Judicial Stamp paper were supplied by the company through its employees," the CBI spokesperson said.
"Later, it was revealed that stamp papers supplied to the bank were fake. The complainant was further informed that the company had the license to supply in the name of Yadav," the official said. The CBI had filed two separate chargesheets accusing trio along with Jagjeevan Yadav, Ashfaq Mulla and Mansoor Bacholikar under different sections of IPC.
"Jagjeevan Yadav and Abdul Gafoor Mujahid expired during trial and investigation respectively, hence proceedings against them were abated. Ashfaq Mulla and Mansoor Bacholikar were made approvers in this cases. The court had granted pardon to them," he said.
