Friday, February 18 2005 20:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The stage is set for commencement of simultaneous trial in the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam through videoconferencing.

A meeting to finalise the measures was held today (Feb 18, 2005) at Bangalore in which prison officials of Karanataka, Maharashtra and CBI participated, a CBI spokesman said in New Delhi.

The meeting was called to take stock of the measures required to be implemented by both the States to ensure smooth functioning of the videoconferencing facilities, he said.

Mock exercises were also carried to ensure smooth functioning of the videoconferencing facilities installed at various locations in Karnataka, the spokesman said and added it was now expected that the trial through video conferencing could commence shortly at several locations including at Bangalore.

A large number of accused, including Abdul Karim Telgi, were lodged in different jails of the country and facing trial in different courts in connection with the fake stamp paper case.

Holding of trial through videoconferencing was initiated by the CBI to avoid unnecessary ependiture on the travel of the accused persons besides warding off security threat, he said adding that a petition for holding trial through this method was moved before the Supreme Court which had ordered the State Government to comply with the CBI request.