AHMEDABAD: A CBI court on Monday convicted five individuals in connection with the Telgi stamp scam, sentencing them to three years in prison and imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 each.
The convicted individuals include Falguni Patel and Kishor Patel from Ahmedabad, Prashant Ningappa Patil from Karnataka, Amzad Ali from Maharashtra, and Zakir Hussain from Rajkot. They were found guilty of dealing in counterfeit government stamps, criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery. “Considering the legal provisions, the circumstances of the case, the age of the accused, and their family responsibilities, a lesser punishment than the maximum prescribed by law was deemed appropriate. The accused have faced trial for 20 years,” said Additional CJM N N Pathar.
Of the 16 people named in the case, prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi and eight others had confessed to their crimes and were convicted in 2009. Two accused passed away during the lengthy trial, which began in 2004. Telgi himself died in 2017 while serving his prison sentence.
The scam was exposed in Gujarat following raids on stamp vendors in Surat and Ahmedabad in 2001, where authorities seized fake stamps from two offices operating under the names Sadguru Services and Sahay Services. The investigation revealed the involvement of several individuals from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat.
