Bribe a clerk. Promise the deputy general manager a promotion through the finance minister. Abdul Karim Laadsab Telgi (48) used traditional Indian techniques to infiltrate every level of hierarchy at one of India’s most heavily guarded and high-tech institutions. The seed of India’s largest crime and corruption scandal was sown at the Indian Security Press (ISP), in the quiet, riverine town of Nashik, by the former vegetable vendor and travel agent who investigators now say revealed organisational acumen and creativity worthy of a great corporate brain. ‘‘The method adopted.by Telgi was so scientific and systematic that he had prepaid (sic) a detailed project report about the prospective market available and the clients who could be approached.’’ That’s the admiring note struck on page 13 of the 170-page chargesheet filed by Maharashtra’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) and made available to The Indian Express. Telgi the contacts he made in 1997 to rocket his cottage fake-stamp paper racket into an industrial-strength operation. That year, he rigged the auction of a printing machine and smuggled out secret dyes to print stamp paper that even the ISP found hard to label counterfeit. Entry into the sprawling press requires a prior appointment, a physical search on entry and exit, and no coins, notes, stamps or stamp papers can come in or go out. The press was guarded by 50 of its own securitymen, taken over after the scam by Central Industrial Security Force. The ISP staffers who connived with Telgi are now in police custody, and the CBI is investigating how many more insiders were involved. Telgi’s exercise began in early 1997, with several visits looking for ISP insiders who could help him get the machinery as well as secret technical information on manufacturing stamps and stamp papers. The first breakthrough came when his accomplice, Jaikishan Ramprasad Singh, established contact with a clerk, Wasim Shaikh, and through him reached Ramchandra Rami Reddy, a clerk of the disposal cell, which dealt with disposal of machinery and dyes. Reddy introduced Telgi to senior purchase manager Shivraj Thakurdas Sharma. Soon Telgi reached deputy general manager Ganga Prakash, whom he promised a promotion as general manager. Telgi actually got a recommendation letter from then urban affairs minister Ram Jethmalani, whom he met during a trip to Delhi in July 1998 with arrested Maharashtra MLA Anil Gote. The MLA stayed with Telgi at Hotel Ashoka in Delhi—bills were paid by Telgi, of course. The chargesheet says Reddy and Sharma leaked out tenders received by ISP for auction of printing machines and rates quoted by other bidders, which helped Telgi have a clear edge over others. Prakash allegedly stole a set of secret programmes from the press and handed it over to Telgi. These documents were recovered during a SIT raid on the conman’s 13, Botawala Chambers, Fort office, in June last year. To purchase the machines, a front company, Unique Enterprises, was floated and tenders were submitted on 23/10/1997 and 24/11/1997 for four printing machines and three perforating machines. It was an easy job to obtain the same through the ‘‘fixed’’ auction, against consideration of Rs 3,51,900. Significantly, while removing the machines from ISP, the perforating dyes were also smuggled out. Retired mechanics were employed to repair machines and dyes. A front company, Indian Trading Corporation, was floated to procure special paper for printing stamps and stamp papers. Telgi roped in Madhukar Tikaram Kulthe, a retired ISP clerk who had knowledge of papers used for printing stamps and stamp papers. Super calendered paper for stamp papers and gummed paper for stamps was purchased from traders in Nashik, under the pretext that the company had secured a huge contract from ISP for supply of the same. In September 1998, Telgi and accomplice Uday Sawant set up a printing press in the name of Mudran Offset Printers on hired premises in Fort, South Mumbai. The press was equipped with everything needed for manufacture of stamps and stamp papers—from 725 Dominant printing machines to boilers for water marks on stamp papers. A spacious godown was hired at Purna village near Bhiwandi on the Nashik-Mumbai road to store raw material and manufactured goods. A door-to-door survey was carried out to bag bulk orders. Then women executives contacted prospective clients on phones and received orders. Telgi’s men would then come to collect cash or cheques from buyers and hand these over to the man himself. The SIT was surprised at the way Telgi ran the sales network. Through the network of different front companies, fake stamps and stamp papers were sold, mixed with genuine ones. The license of government stamps vendor Madhav Muttu Devadiga was used to purchase government stamps and stamp papers to mix with counterfeit ones. His initial clients were in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Later the network spread to other states.
