Mumbai: Senior police inspector of Mumbai crime branch, Datta Dhal was on August 21 night arrested in Pune by Special Investigative Team (SIT) probing the multi-crore fake stamp paper racket.

Dhal, was called to Pune for questioning and was arrested at 10 p m, police sources told reporters.

Dhal in-charge of Dharavi unit crime branch was arrested under Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), a stringent law of the state.

He has been charged with abetting and helping prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi in the alleged crime.

Dhal is the second police officer to be arrested in this case, earlier inspector Dilip Kamath was arrested on a similar charge, sources added.

With the arrest of Dhal total number of accused arrested in this case has gone up to 47.

Dhal, allegedly shielded Telgi by showing recovery of fake stamp paper of Rs 850 crore in someone else's name. The material was seized from a godown in Bhiwandi in January 2002.

Telgi and others are facing the charge of printing and distributing counterfeit stamp papers in Maharashtra and seven other states causing losses to the government to the tune of several crore of rupees.

PTI