By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Multi-crore fake stamp paper racket mastermind Abdul Karim Telgi is in critical

condition. 57-year-old Telgi, who is convicted in fake stamp paper cases and serving life imprisonment at Central Prison in Bengaluru, is being treated at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Victoria Hospital in the city.

“He is in critical condition,” Dr Balaji Pai, Medical Superintendent, Emergency and Trauma Care, Victoria Hospital told The New Indian Express on Monday night. Pai refused to give any further details.

Sources said Telgi was admitted to the hospital a week back after his health deteriorated. He is suffering from brain fever and has been in the ICU from last one week, sources added.

Five cases were booked against Telgi in Bengaluru. He was convicted in four and acquitted in one case. Telgi who is in prison from last 16 years is also wanted by police in Goa, Maharashtra, AP and other

states in fake stamp paper cases booked in those states.

Telgi, a native of Khanapur in Belgaum district, was the kingpin behind the racket that produced fake stamp papers and allegedly sold them to number of private and government agencies, including banks

and insurance firms. He entered the world of crime by counterfeiting passports and later took to manufacturing fake stamp papers. The multi-crore racket had spread across the country.

The racket was uncovered first in 1999 when the city police raided a premises in

Vasanth Nagar in Bengaluru and seized huge quantity of fake stamp papers and other documents. Telgi was later nabbed from Maharashtra by the city police team when HT Sangliana was the commissioner of city police.

The then government formed Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a senior officer. The SIT questioned many police officers and politicians who allegedly helped Telgi in the racket. Karnataka government subsequently banned stamp papers and went in for franking machines.

Even inside the jail, Telgi is accused of bribing the officials to get extra facilities. In July this year, then

Prisons Department DIG D Roopa, in her report about the alleged irregularities in the prisons department had mentioned that Telgi and AIADMK leader Sasikala were given special facilities and treated like

VVIPs. The charge was, however, denied by the jail officials.

