Telgi scam

The Telgi stamp scam can be dubbed as the mother of all scams and many cannot
resist saying it happens only in India. Its ramifications run deep and cover over 12
states with Maharashtra leading the way. It has left its stamp of shame on the top
police brass, politicians and bureaucrats. Today a number of them, including the expolice commissioner of police, Mumbai are languishing in jails along with the
kingpin, and states strong man resigned as cries to boot him out reached a crescendo.
Abdul Karim Lad Saab Telgis story is that of the rags to the riches. He started by
selling articles on the Belgaum platform and trains to make out a living and educated
himself and by doing a petty job. He struck gold when he plunged into printing and
selling fake stamps. His operations lasted for nearly a decade and during this period he
was able to keep the law at bay by bribing the powers that pulled the strings.
He started be doing what has been even impossible to think of. He penetrated the
confines of Indian Governments Nashik Security Press where millions of crores
worth court stamp papers and printed in connivance with the top officials. He bought
scrap stamp printing presses in working conditions, installed them in his Mumbai
Press and began printing and selling stamp papers.
What helped and boosted his sales was that by pulling his political strings he
succeeded in getting a stamp vendors license. This enabled him to sell in bulk to top
companies and banks. Soon his growing money power gained him so much clout at
Mumbai Stamp Office that for long periods they feigned shortage of stamps, allowing
Telgis men to sell stamps at a premium outside the stamp office.

Today, many are paying the police of their falling prey to Telgis bribes and Telgi to
who has amassed a fortune is down with aids and in jail but this time without the
luxuries of a cell phone or hotel stay. Todays watch worth is No Telgi Ghee only
butter
Though the racket had come to light in 1995 those whose duty was to expose and
bring the guilty to booth engaged them in cover-up and apparently allowed him to run
the racket from his cell by providing him the cell phone.
Finally, it was the patience and perseverance of one man, the indefatigable Anna
Hazare who filled a public interest petition in the high court. This brought things into
the open and exposed the role of police and politicians and under the courts order the
state government was forced to set up S.I.T whos findings have sealed the fate by
many top brass and even made the central government to sit up and take action.

Key Players

Abdul Karim Lad Saab Telgi

The main suspect in the fake stamp paper racket is a native of Belgaum district in
Karnataka. He began as a vendor in a small railway station before coming to Mumbai.
A meeting with a forger eventually led him to the stamp and stamp papers business
where demand forever exceeded supply. He capitalized on this by printing duplicates.
No one has determined the extent of his business or the loss to the exchequer, but it is
believed to run into thousands of crores.
Arrested in 2001, Telgi is now behind bars in Karnataka.
Among those who reportedly helped Telgi were several politicians, policemen and
bureaucrats.
Two MLAs - Anil Gote (Dhule, Maharashtra) and Krishna Yadav (Himayat Nagar,
Andhra Pradesh) - have been arrested and charged under the Maharashtra Control of
Organized Crime Act.
Apparently, Gote helped Telgi get a stamp vendor's license using a recommendation
from former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Yadav, it is believed demanded Rs 2 crore to protect his illegal business.

Though Telgi's business empire was controlled from

Mumbai, the Maharashtra government never showed much enthusiasm to expose or
end the racket.
Noted social reformer Anna Hazare filed a PIL in the Bombay high court to force the
state government to act.
Today, the investigation is out of the hands of the state government and is monitored
by the court. Some believe that to be reason for the arrest of some very high profile
people.
On the court's orders, retired additional DGP Sukhwinder Singh Puri was appointed
head of the Special Investigation Team probing the racket, as its then chief, DIG
Subodh Jaiswal, was junior to cops who were under scrutiny.
Known as 'Justice Puri in police circles, Puri enjoys the reputation of being an upright
officer. It was after he entered the picture that the accused began emerging from the
shadows. He has shunned the media glare and steadfastly stuck to his work.
Former Mumbai police commissioner R S Sharma is the highest-ranking officer to be
arrested so far. The SIT says he did not maintain absolute integrity in the investigation
into the scam. Even at the time of his appointment, Sharma was plagued with
allegations of bribing his way to the top post.
Now the telgi scam has intensified the conflict between the congress and the NCP
parties, the two leading partners in the democratic front government, with chief
ministers Shinde unable to decide the course of action against the Mumbai police
commissioner Ranjeet Sharma for his alleged role in the Rs. 3000 crore fake stamp
paper scam.
Political observers, however, set the DF leaders are desperately hacking out a facesaving formula, which would seemingly show that the chief minister has taken
decisive action against Sharma and at the same time, insures not to antagonize
bhujbal, who belongs to the NCP.
Already the opposition Shivsena- BJP combine has demanded Bhujbals resignation
accusing him of shielding corrupt police officers involved in the multi crore stamp.
Meanwhile there are indications that a new police chief in the next few days would
replace Sharma. Sources say that Sharma may be side lined as an additional director

general in the state Police. VN Deshmuk, commissioner of state intellegince

department, is most likely to be the new police chief said a Mantralay offical, some
officers have begun lobbying with senior politicians in Maharashtra and New delhi to
get elite posting in Mumbai.
However, Political sources said that the state government would ensure that a good
officer is posted in Mumbai as the image of the city police has taken a severe drubbing
in the past two days.
Retired ACP M C Mulani (small pic, left) reportedly demanded a bribe from
Telgi. Despite knowing this, Sharma let him continue in the team investigating
the scam.
IGP Sridhar Vagal is the second highest ranking officer to be arrested. Among
other things, he reportedly allowed Telgi a free rein even when he was in police
custody. At that time, Vagal was working under Sharma in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal finds himself in a soup
because he had appointed Sharma as Mumbai police chief. Even at that time, it
was known that Sharma's role in the racket was not entirely above board.
He has often found himself isolated where this racket is concerned with no support
forthcoming from his party, Nationalist Congress Party, either.
There is no talk of any connection between him and Telgi as yet, but until Sharma is
absolved, Bhujbal will continue to be viewed with suspicion.

Government Reactions

EX-Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said the value of the fake stamp papers recovered
by various investigative agencies was Rs 3,376 crores.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on a calling attention motion on the stamp paper scam, the
minister said the agencies had registered 74 cases in this connection, with 15 against
chief accused Abdul Karim Telgi.

Singh said while several figures had been given out on the value of the scam, they
were all speculative. He added since most of the stamp duties were payable to state
governments, the loss of revenue for the Center had been very little.
He said the government would recognize as genuine all transactions executed on
stamp papers within the country. He said, There will be no legal infirmity on any
such documents and, if necessary, the government will introduce a Bill in the House.
Singh said the new stamp papers with improved security features would be available
across the country by July 2004. The minister said the government was committed to
find a remedy to the problem and said a number of measures were under way to
eliminate the virus.
The minister acknowledged that the full contours of the scam were not visible to him
when Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna wrote to him last year.
But by March 2003, the finance ministry had written to all the chief ministers asking
them to name officials who could be involved in circulating fake stamp paper.

Bofors scandal

The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s;
initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and
several others who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning
a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was far
worse than any that India had seen before and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's
ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. It has
been speculated that the scale of the scandal was to the tune of 4000 million
rupees. The case came to light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence
minister,

and

was

revealed

through

investigative

journalism

by Chitra

Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the Indian Express and The Hindu.

The middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian
businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was
reportedly close to the family of Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the
1980s between big businesses and the Indian government. While the case was being
investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 for an unrelated cause
by the LTTE. In 1997, the Swiss banks released some 500 documents after years of
legal battle and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case against
Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a
number of others. In the meantime, Win Chadha also died.
Meanwhile February 5, 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery
against Rajiv Gandhi and others, but the case is still being tried on charges of
cheating, causing wrongful loss to the government, etc. On May 31, 2005, the High
Court of Delhi dismissed the Bofors case allegations against the British business
brothers, Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, but charges against others
remain.
In December 2005, Mr B. Daat, the additional solicitor general of India, acting on
behalf of the Indian Government and the CBI, requested the British Government that
two British bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi be unfrozen on the grounds of
insufficient evidence to link these accounts to the Bofors payoff. The two accounts,
containing 3 million and $1 million, had been frozen. On January 16, the Indian
Supreme Court directed the Indian government to ensure that Ottavio Quattrocchi did
not withdraw money from the two bank accounts in London. The CBI, the Indian
federal law enforcement agency, on January 23, 2006 admitted that roughly Rs
21 crore, about US $4.6 million, in the two accounts have already been withdrawn by
the accused. The British government released the funds later. The deals cost
the Government of India an extra 160 crore rupees.

However, on January 16, 2006, CBI claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme
Court that they were still pursuing extradition orders for Quattrocchi. The Interpol, at
the request of the CBI, has a long-standing red corner notice to arrest
Quattrocchi. Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February 2007, but the news
of his detention was released by the CBI only on 23 February. Quattrocchi was
released by Argentinian police. However, his passport was impounded and he was not
allowed to leave the country.
However, as there was no extradition treaty between India and Argentina, the case
was presented in the Argentine Supreme Court. The government of India lost the
extradition case as the government of India did not provide a key court order which
was the basis of Quattrochi's arrest. In the aftermath, the government did not appeal
this decision because of delays in securing an official English translation of the court's
decision.
A Delhi court provided temporary relief for Quattrocchi from the case, for lack of
sufficient evidence against him, on 4 March 2011. However the case is still going on.
Despite the controversy the Bofors gun was used extensively as the primary field
artillery during the Kargil dispute with Pakistan and gave India 'an edge' against
Pakistan according to battlefield commanders.

The Fodder Scam

If you havent heard of Bihars fodder scam of 1996, you might still be able to
recognize it by the name of Chara Ghotala , as it is popularly known in the
vernacular language.
In this corruption scandal worth Rs.900 crore, an unholy nexus was traced involved in
fabrication of vast herds of fictitious livestock for which fodder, medicine and
animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.
Among those implicated in the theft and arrested were then Chief Minister of
Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, as well as former Chief Minister, Jagannath Mishra.
The scandal led to the end of Laloo's reign as Chief Minister.
The theft spanned many years, and allegedly involved numerous Bihar state's
administrative and elected officials across multiple administrations of the Indian
National Congress and theJanata Dal parties. The corruption scheme involved the
fabrication of "vast herds of fictitious livestock" for which fodder, medicines
and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured. Although the scandal
broke in 1996, the theft had been in progress, and increased in size, for over two
decades. Besides the magnitude and duration of the theft, the scam was and continues
to be covered in Indian media due to the extensive nexus between tenured bureaucrats,
elected politicians and businesspeople that it revealed, and as an example of the mafia
raj that has penetrated several state-run economic sectors in the country.

The scam
The scam had its origins in small-scale embezzlement by some government
employees submitting false expense reports, which grew in magnitude and drew
additional elements, such as politicians and businesses, over time, until a full-fledged
mafia had formed. Jagannath Mishra, who served his first stint as the chief minister of
Bihar in the mid-1970s, was the earliest chief minister to be accused of knowing
involvement in the scam.
In February 1985, the then Comptroller and Auditor General of India, T.N.
Chaturvedi, took notice of delayed monthly account submissions by the Bihar state
treasury and departments and wrote to the then Bihar chief minister, Chandrashekhar
Singh, warning him that this could be indicative of temporary embezzlement. This
initiated a continuous chain of closer scrutiny and warnings by Principal Accountant
Generals (PAGs) and CAGs to the Bihar government across the tenures of multiple
chief ministers (cutting across party affiliations), but the warnings were ignored in a
manner that was suggestive of a pattern by extremely senior political and bureaucratic
officials in the Bihar government. In 1992, Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi, a police inspector
with the state's anti-corruption vigilance unit submitted a report outlining the fodder
scam and likely involvement at the chief ministerial level to the director general of the
same vigilance unit, G. Narayan. In alleged reprisal, Dvivedi was transferred out of
the vigilance unit to a different branch of the administration, and then suspended from
his position. He was later to be a witness as corruption cases relating to the scam went
to trial, and reinstated by order of the Jharkhand High Court.

Exposure and Investigation

Laloo Prasad Yadav, then chief minister of Bihar, was a prime accused in the fodder
scam investigation.
On January 27, 1996, the deputy commissioner of West Singhbhum district, Amit
Khare, acted on information to conduct a raid on the offices of the animal husbandry
department in the town of Chaibasa in the district under his authority. The documents
his team seized, and went public with, conclusively indicated large-scale
embezzlement by an organized mafia of officials and businesspeople. Laloo ordered
the constitution of a committee to probe the irregularities. There were fears that state
police, which is accountable to the state administration, and the probe committee
would not investigate the case vigorously, and demands were raised to transfer the
case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is under federal rather than
state jurisdiction. Allegations were also made that several of the probe committee
members were themselves complicit in the scam. A public interest litigation was filed
with the Supreme Court of India, which led to the court's involvement, and based on
the ultimate directions issued by the supreme court, on March 1996, the Bihar High
Court ordered that the case be handed over to the CBI.
An inquiry by the CBI began and, within days, the CBI filed a submission to the High
Court that Bihar officials and legislators were blocking access to documents that could
reveal the existence of a politician-official-business mafia nexus at work. Some

legislators of the Bihar Legislative Council responded by claiming the court had been
misinformed by the CBI and initiating a privilege motion to discuss possible action
against senior figures in the regional headquarters of the CBI, which could proceed
similar to a contempt of court proceeding and result in stalling the investigation or
even prosecution of the named CBI officials. However, U N Biswas, the regional CBI
director, and the other officials tendered an unqualified apology to the Legislative
Council, the privilege motion was dropped, and the CBI probe continued. As the
investigation proceeded, the CBI unearthed linkages to the serving chief minister of
Bihar,Laloo Prasad Yadav and, on May 10, 1997, made a formal request to the
federally-appointed governor of Bihar to prosecute Laloo (who is often referred by his
first name in Indian media). On the same day, a businessman, Harish Khandelwal,
who was one of the accused was found dead on train tracks with a note that stated that
he was being coerced by the CBI to turn witness for the prosecution. The CBI rejected
the charge and its local director, U N Biswas, kept the appeal to the governor in place.
Impact
Since it broke into public light, the fodder scam has become symbolic of bureaucratic
corruption and the criminalization of politics in India generally, and in Bihar in
particular. It has been called a symptom of the "deep and chronic malady afflicting the
Bihar government and quite a few other state governments as well."[50] In the Indian
parliament, it was cited as an important indicator of the deep inroads made by mafia
rajin the politics and economics of the country.[51] Reference has also been made to
the anarchic nature of governance (the "withering away of the state") that occurs when
a mafia develops in a state-controlled sector of the economy.[52]
Laloo Prasad Yadav is the only person on whom the Lok Sabha debated for a
complete session as the official agenda.

IPL scam
The Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL) is a professional league for
Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI). The scam is complicated to an extent that makes us doubt if
IPL itself was created for money laundering.
BCCI officials involved
Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner

Politicians involved
Sharad Pawar family
Sharad Pawar and his immediate family held over 16% equity in one of the bidders for
an IPL cricket team. The Pawars own 33.6 lakh shares (out of 2.07 crore shares) in
City Corporation, a Pune-based construction company which bid Rs 1,176 crore for a
franchise in March. The Pawar family's shares are held through two companies, Lap
Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Namratta Film Enterprises Pvt Ltd, which are
100% owned by the NCP supremo and Union agriculture minister, his wife Pratibha
and daughter Supriya Sule.
Interestingly before the details emerged, Pawars claimed as miles away from IPL and
bidding.

Shashi Tharoor
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's friend (later his wife) Sunanda
Pushkar had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), heading the
consortium that owns the Kochi team. It was later disclosed that Pushkar got sweat
equity of the value of Rs 70 crore. Shashi Tharoor maintained that the amount had
nothing to do with his active campaigning and mentoring for the Kochi team. This
was less convincing as he had specifically mentioned that he had no specific gains
from RSW winning Kochi Franchisee.
The Prime minister Manmohan Singh later demanded his resignation.
Praful Patel
Praful Patel was accused of meddling in the auctioning of the franchisees.
Corporates and celebrities involved

Multi Screen Media or Sony Entertainment Television

World Sports Group

International Management Group

Raj Kundra

Shahrukh Khan

Preity Zinta

Broadcast deal
In 2008, WSG bagged IPL television rights for 10 years with a USD 918 million bid
and a promise to spend USD 108 million on the event. It also signed a deal with MSM
making Sony the official broadcaster. However, two months before IPL-2, the deal
was scrapped. It was recast with MSM agreeing to pay USD 1.63 billion for nine
years.
According to I-T sources, MSM agreed to pay WSG's offshore company in Mauritius
a "facilitation fee" of 7.5 per cent of the IPL contract, which is around USD 80
million. On April 14, 2009, MSM remitted, from the Development Bank of Singapore

to WSG USD 15.3 million and on June 26, 2009, USD 10.276 million in two separate
installments.
Match fixing
Income Tax investigation report into match-fixing angle in the IPL revealed Lalit
Modi has interests in three teams. The report goes on to name Samir Thakral as front
for Lalit Modi whose phone records show conversations with bookies. Serious
investigations were on into possible match-fixing and betting in IPL Season 2 which
took place in South Africa. The entire investigation now seems to be honing in on
IPL 2. Income Tax investigation wing has filed a confidential report to the finance
ministry.
Several IPL players could have been involved. There were indications that phone
conversations have also been recorded and that possible questioning of IPL players
could happen in this regard.
Money laundering
IPL is a major source for some individuals or parties to bring that money from Swiss
banks to India for utilize it in investing in various business firms. NRI, Non resident
Indian play an important role in this conversion. If we analyze the owners of IPL
teams , then we can see huge NRI presence in shareholders. As per laws in India, an
NRI can bring tons of money through his account to invest in India without any
barrier or using some simple formalities. Mauritius is top among these because an
investing NRI in Mauritius can bring huge amount of money from any Swiss Bank
account to their operating account in Mauritius. Then the NRI transfer the money to
India through his/her NRI bank account in India and invest in Indian business firms.
Due to this IPL became an easy way to turn BLACK MONEY to WHITE.
The Income Tax department had received financial details of more than Rs 150 crore
in overseas accounts from some tax haven countries of "non- residents" who invested
in the IPL. The information regarding investments and remittances to the tune of about
Rs 150 crore in IPL media rights has been received from British Virgin Islands and
Mauritius.