Stamp-paper scam: HC tells CBI to produce 11 CDs before MCOCA court

Mumbai, Aug 1 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to deposit eleven compact discs, containing the conversation between multi-crore fake stamp-paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi and other accused, to the special MCOCA court in Pune by Friday.

Justice R S Mohite also directed the CBI to make copies of the CDs before handing them over to the court and to start transcribing the conversation contained in the CDs.

Originally there were 51 audio cassettes that were handed over to the CBI by the Karnataka Police, who had intercepted the 3400 conversations between Telgi and some very reputed people and some unidentified persons. These tapes were converted into 14 CDs by the CBI, of which three are now deposited with the MCOCA Court.

Earlier, the court had stayed the playing of the CDs following a petition by Anil Gote, a former MLA and an accused in the fake stamp-paper scam, who alleged that the CBI could produce only eight CDs in the Pune designated court. He alleged that some of the CDs went missing and the prosecution had deliberately witheld few of them in order to safeguard some top politicians who had spoken to Telgi.

Strongly opposing the allegations made by Mr Gote, public prosecutor Raja Thakare had argued that all the fourteen CDs were well preserved. Only relevant CDs were produced before the court so as not to affect the case, he argued.

According to the prosecution case, police had earlier intercepted 3,400 long distance calls made by Telgi and also 11,000 calls made within the country. The Karnataka Police had handed over the same to the Stamp Paper Scam Investigation Team (StamPIT) of CBI.

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