Fake stamp paper case: Abdul Karim Telgi acquitted Over a Year After His Death
Nashik, Dec 31: The Nashik sessions court in Maharashtra Monday acquitted late Abdul Karim Telgi and seven others in a 2004 multi-crore fake stamp paper case in absence of "solid evidence" against them.
Telgi, who was convicted in several cases in connection with the scam and sentenced to imprisonment of 30 years in total, died in Bengaluru in October last year while serving his jail term.
Charges against Telgi, believed to be the kingpin of the scam that was spread over several states, were abated after his death.
In his order, district and sessions court judge, first class, P R Deshmukh acquitted Telgi and seven others for want of evidence against them.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against Telgi and others in a Nashik court in August 2004 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The CBI had contended that the accused, including the officers and constables of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), colluded with Telgi by selling him stamp papers by opening sealed packets when they were transported to the Nashik railway yard from the city-based India Security Press, said defence advocate M Y Kale.
These stamp papers were meant to be dispatched to treasuries of various state governments.
The India Security Press (ISP) is a subsidiary of the Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), a public undertaking of the Union government.
ISP, located in Nashik, is tasked with printing passports, visas, postage stamps, postcards, inland letters, envelopes, non-postal adhesives, court fees, fiscal, and Hundi stamps in the country.
The court had framed charges against the eight accused in February 2015, Kale said.
The court examined 49 witnesses during the trial, he said, adding that the accused were acquitted by the judge in absence of "solid evidence".
Besides Telgi, other accused acquitted Monday are identified as RPF officials Rambhau Pawar, Brijkishore Tiwari, Vilaschandra Joshi, Dnyaneshwar Barke, Pramod Dahage, Mohammed Sarvar and Vilas More.
It cannot be immediately confirmed whether these officials are still serving with the RPF or are retired from service.
The government pleader, who represented the CBI in the case, didn't talk with reporters.
Telgi had printed fake stamp papers allegedly in connivance with government officials and politicians, and sold them to banks, stock brokerage firms and insurance companies.
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2019 mud attack on engineer: Maharashtra court sentences BJP minister Nitesh Rane to one-month jail
Mumbai (PTI): A court in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case of pouring mud on an NHAI engineer when he was in opposition, and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment, noting that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands.
Later, the court suspended Rane's sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.
"Even though Rane's intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public," additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh stated.
"If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity," the judge noted.
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Calling the act "abuse of power", the court held that "it is the demand of time to curb such tendency".
Rane, a son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was among 30 people charged under various offences, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant, and criminal conspiracy. He was in Congress when the incident occurred.
All the accused, including Nitesh Rane, were acquitted of these offences, as the court found insufficient evidence to support most of these claims.
However, the court found Nitesh Rane guilty of an offence under section 504 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace) and sentenced him to one month's jail.
Rane, then a Congress MLA, had called the Sub-Divisional Engineer of the National Highway Authority, Prakash Shedekar, to a bridge over the Gad river in Kankavli on July 4, 2019, for inspecting the work to widen the Mumbai-Goa Highway.
According to the prosecution, Nitesh Rane and his followers, frustrated by the poor quality of the roadwork and waterlogging, confronted the engineer. They poured muddy water on Shedekar and forced him to walk through slush in public.
The court, after perusing the evidence on record, noted that the informant (victim) was holding a high post in the National Highway Authority.
"Despite that, he was made to walk through the muddy water in public. It would have certainly humiliated and insulted him," the court remarked.
The judge held that Rane compelling Shedekar to walk through the muddy water "was nothing but an intentional insult to the informant," and provocation which will cause him to break the public peace.
