By Indo-Asian News Service
Chennai: Sarfaraz Nawaz, an associate of stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi, admitted to charges of conspiracy, cheating, forgery and circulation of counterfeit stamp papers before a court here Tuesday.
Nawaz was produced before special Central Bureau of Investigation judge N. Velu along with co-accused Balaji of Bangalore and Peter Kennedy from Chennai.
The judge extended the remand of Sarfaraz, Balaji, Kennedy and others lodged in Yerawada Prison in Pune. The others are, Jacob Chacko, Abdul Wahid and Telgi till July 26.
Police sources indicated that charges would be framed on the next hearing.
The judge heard Telgi and others through video-conferencing since they were not produced here due to security reasons. Telgi and the other accused in Pune are being tried through video-conferencing.
Six other co-conspirators from Chennai – suspended cop DIG A.P. Mohammad Ali, ACP Shankar, LIC agent Ramaswamy Sadhu, Nizamuddin and his wife Nazreen – are on bail.
CBI had filed its chargesheet on Dec 13, 2005, following orders of the Supreme Court.
There are 46 other cases against Telgi spread over 11 states.
The CBI has averred that Ali and Shankar cooperated with Telgi and helped him sell fake stamp papers.
Ali, who was a DIG in Tamil Nadu’s Crime Branch CID, had reportedly managed to stall investigation into the scam.
Ali and Shankar were arrested two years ago and let off on conditional bail, which was later relaxed.
Telgi is said to have sold fake stamp papers worth more than Rs.20 million to LIC alone in Tamil Nadu. STAMPIT, the Karnataka police’s wing that went into the allegations, has seized stamp papers worth about Rs.1.7 billion.