Sunday, June 12 2005 20:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Investigators probing the activities of stamp paper scam accused Abdul Karim Telgi have found that besides investing in Bollywood, he had also pumped money from the scam into dance bars in Mumbai.

CBI officials, who are wrapping up the probe for charge sheeting nearly 65 accused, said there is evidence that some proceeds of crime were diverted for the production of a Hindi film by production house "Sanna Movies International".

During his custodial interrogation, Telgi told CBI that he had no idea of where to invest the enormous proceeds he got from printing of fake stamps and stamp papers so he hired two consultants for finding some business ventures, official sources said.

The sources said that he had also invested huge sum of money in opening of Dance Bars in Mumbai and also had a project to build some theatres and hospitals.

Telgi later went to Madhya Pradesh and evinced keen interest in the Soya bean business and invested in it, they said.

In Madhya Pradesh, Telgi opened some front companies, including one "Malwa Enterprises", which was entrusted with sending raw Soya bean from Indore to Bangalore for extracting oil.

The amount of money parked by Telgi in this business was being probed by the CBI, sources said, adding Telgi had also shown interest in investing in trading of "suran" vegetable as it has a long shelf-life.

Proceeds of the crime were also channelised towards the overtly legal business of export of Soya bean.

It has been disclosed that huge amounts of funds have been pumped into the business of petro-products, particularly Naptha, with indications that adulteration of petrol or diesel was being carried out in a big way under the garb of legal petroleum trade, they added.

Many of these are in fact defunct companies and are clandestinely diverting raw materials like naphtha, kerosene, benzene solvents for adulteration of motor spirits, they sources said.

The CBI, in its FIR, has named Telgi and an IOC officer Nirmal Singh besides five companies allegedly belonging to the scamster.