Thursday, March 24 2005 17:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Prime accused in multi-crore fake stamp paper case Abdul Karim Telgi was today (March 24, 2005) remanded to judicial custody till April 7 by a local court in a 2003 case for his alleged complicity in circulating counterfeit stamp papers.

Additional Metropolitan Magistrate D K Sonawane extended Telgi's remand along with that of other accused in the case, including his nephew, Tabrez Telgi.

The court turned down his lawyer Jaideep Thakker's request to consult Telgi in the court premises.

Thakker told the court that he has not received documents pertaining to this case and hence he should be allowed to interact with Telgi.

Telgi himself told the court that he had over 48 cases pending and there were so many documents. He said, "There is no place in the cell to keep all the documents including chargesheets which run into thousands of pages."

Telgi, along with six others, was arrested by police on the charge of selling fake stamp papers.

The M R A Marg police station in the metropolis had registered a case against the accused based on a complaint filed by superintendent of General Stamp Office Ramdas Potle.

Two companies, M/s Phoenix India and M/s GTL had purchased non-judicial stamps worth Rs two lakh and Rs four lakh through M/s Global Services.

When one of the persons, who had purchased these stamps, found that there was a printing error on a stamp paper, he went to return it. At that time it was learnt that the stamp paper was bogus.