More cans and more worms spill out of Telgi from prison

The season of revelations continues in the Telgi scam with yet another explosive interrogation report being handed over to Special Investiga...

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The season of revelations continues in the Telgi scam with yet another explosive interrogation report being handed over to Special Investigative Team by forensic scientists.

The 10-page report contains admissions made by Telgi during the pre-test interrogation session before the narco-analysis test was performed on him in Bangalore and there is plenty in it to make politicians and policemen named in the scam to squirm.

This report was received by the SIT days before the Bombay High Court (on March 5) upheld the validity of scientific tests like narco-analysis and brain-mapping. SIT sources in Mumbai say the latest set of revelations are being probed and will be included in the next chargesheet filed against the counterfeit kingpin.

The key Telgi claims in this report:

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• Former MLA Anil Gote not only gave Telgi access to former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani, he had also helped him meet senior officials of the Ministry of Finance. When contaced, Gote’s lawyers denied this allegation.

• Foomer Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s name figures in the list of politicians who Telgi says helped him set up his fake stamp shop. And procure licences way back in 1994.

• Telgi has claimed he spent a week in Dubai with former Karnataka Minister, Roshan Baig. And that he paid Baig a hefty monthly ‘‘fee.’’

	SC brings all Telgi cases under CBI net

			• SC orders CBI be handed over 48 stamp paper scam cases • Clears decks for CBI to interrogate Telgi • SC directs all states involved to help CBI probe the cases • CBI told to file status report within four months • Directs high courts not to entertain any related petition • Maharashtra CM says state machinery will cooperate with CBI

• Telgi has claimed specific payments to Dalip Kamath, the Assistant Police Inspector, who is behind bars. Telgi has said he made one payment of Rs 75 lakh to Kamath and that the policeman frequently visited him in Bangalore Jail

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• There is corroboration of how Telgi pulled strings in the high-security printing press in Nashik.

The pre-test interrogation is conducted with a subject for an hour or so before he is administered the truth serum.

In this case, the interview was so lengthy that it took days to transcribe and scientists of the Baganlore-based Forensic Science Laboratory decided to first send the truth serum report to the SIT and only recently sent them the pre-test papers.

A copy of the pre-test interrogation report is to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation which has now taken over a bulk of the Telgi cases.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More