The mastermind of fake stamp paper scam that ran into hundreds of crores of rupees, Abdul Karim Telgi, died on Thursday at Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital due to illness. Telgi, who had mastered ways of counterfeiting and corrupting the system, was behind bars ever since his arrest in 2001.

Son of a railway employee from Belgaum in Karnataka, Telgi went through hardships in his early days after the death of his father. Telgi moved to Saudi Arabia and on return ventured into a new career of counterfeiting, fake passports to start with. He eventually made a fortune by printing fake stamp papers and other judicial papers.

The scam

Telgi dealt not only in counterfeit stamp papers but also related items such as judicial court fee stamps, non-judicial stamps, revenue stamps, brokers’ notes, insurance policies, share transfer certificates, etc. After illegally printing the stamp papers, Telgi allegedly sold them to bulk purchasers, including banks, insurance firms, and stock brokerage firms.

As per media reports, the scam involving counterfeiting of stamp papers that Telgi ran was worth was more than Rs. 20,000 crore. There were about 40 cases against Telgi in 11 states.

Modus operandi and business empire

Between 1993 and 2002, Telgi reportedly made good connections with officers in government security press in Nashik. He purchased old machinery at government auctions to print stamp papers and sold the counterfeit papers at heavy discounts. He had an army of agents working for him across the country.

Telgi ran his illegal business empire with impunity. He reportedly had links with politicians and senior police officers in many states.

Twelve cases relating to counterfeit stamps were registered against Telgi in Maharashtra alone and 15 in other parts of the country. As per the investigation, Telgi owned 36 properties across country, and had 123 bank accounts in 18 cities.

Telgi was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 13 years on 28 June 2007. He was also slapped with a Rs. 202 crore fine, which was unprecedented.

Telgi was reportedly suffering from a number of ailments, including diabetes, hypertension, meningitis and AIDS.