Abdul Karim Telgi, convicted for masterminding the multi-crore fake stamp paper racket that had nationwide ramifications, died at Victoria Hospital here on Thursday.
The 56-year-old was admitted to the hospital 10 days ago with meningitis. “He suffered a massive cardiac arrest and...we could not revive him,” S. Balaji Pai, special officer, Trauma Care Centre, Victoria Hospital, said. He was declared dead at 3.55 p.m.
Telgi, a school dropout, hailed from the small town of Khanapur in Belagavi, who sold peanuts at railways stations in the 1980s to make a living.
He got into racketeering in the 1990s by selling fake stamps which he began to print and circulate across the country to vendors at throwaway prices through his network. By the time the Bengaluru police arrested him in Ajmer in November 2001, he had built an elaborate counterfeit operations network across several States including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat.
Links with politicians
Jayant Tinekar, social activist from Khanapur, has demanded an inquiry into the connections of politicians with Abdul Kareem Ladsab Telgi, the mastermind of the fake stamp paper racket, who died in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Mr. Tinekar was the whistleblower who complained against the fake stamp paper racket that led to an investigation against Abdul Kareem Ladsab from Khanapur.
StampIT, a team of officers put together by the State government, dug up evidence to prove charges against Telgi. The CBI took over later, as the scam had ramifications across many States. “Telgi has left behind a diary that contains the names of politicians who got money from him regularly. They too have to be brought to book,” Mr. Tinekar told presspersons at his office in Khanapur on Thursday.
