Bhopal: Asserting that the multi-crore Telgi stamp paper scam has "serious implications", Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (November 20) wondered as to why Governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka where the scandal originated have so far been reluctant for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into it.

The two states where the stamp paper scam originated in a "big way" have been "reluctant" to ask for a CBI inquiry and "I do not know for what reasons", he told a press conference in Bhopal.

Advani said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had met him but there had been no request from the State Government for a CBI inquiry though states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi have requested the Centre for such a probe.

The stamp paper scandal, he said, was a "serious issue with great ramifications" like the fake currency scam.

Replying to questions on the alleged cash-on-camera case allegedly involving former Union Minister and Chattisgarh leader Dilip Singh Judeo, he said making the issue political one may "prove costly" for the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

The Congress party "should have focused on developmental issues but making the Judeo issue a political one, may prove costly for it" in the polls, he said.

PTI