Abdul Karim Telgi was born in Khanpur, Karnataka. His father was an employee working for Indian Railways, who died when Telgi was a child. Telgi paid for his education by selling fruits and vegetables in Khanpur and completed his schooling from the local Sarvodaya Vidyalaya and pursued a B.com degree from a college in Belagavi, after which he moved to Mumbai to earn a living. After spending sometime in Mumbai, Telgi moved to Saudi Arabia to work. After few years, Telgi returned to Mumbai as he lost his job there, and started his business of selling fake stamps and stamp papers.
First Crime
After returning to India, Telgi started working as a travel agent in Mumbai.Telgi used to supply labours to Saudi Arabia. Soon he started like passport and several other documents in order to send manpower to Saudi Arabia. In 1993, Telgi was caught by Immigration Authorities in India and was put behind the bar for cheating and forgery at MRA Marg police station in South Mumbai. In jail, Telgi met Ram Ratan Soni, a government stamp vendor from Kolkata. From here the idea of committing bigger scams was born. Soni hired Telgi, to sell adhesive stamps and non-judicial stamp papers for him in exchange of commission.
Stamp Paper Scam
In 1994, Abdul Telgi acquired a stamp vendor permit with the help of Soni. Telgi and Soni then forged various stamp papers and their business grew. Telgi created an scarcity of legal stamp papers in various parts of India by buying stamp papers in bulk quantities. Telgi mix genuine stamp papers with fake papers and selling them at massive profits.
In 1995, Telgi and Soni parted ways and Soni found himself in trouble once again, with his license being cancelled over cases filed by the Mumbai Police for selling fake stamps. However, by this time, Telgi knew everything for setting up his own press. In 1996, Telgi set up his own press on Mint Road in Mumbai. He got several machines declared to be obsolete. He later bought the machines and used them to set up his own press. Abdul Telgi bribed government employees to obtain technology and machines used for printing stamp papers from the securities press.
Soon, his business grew to other cities and Telgi was controlling the whole scam from Bangalore. Many lured people joined him in selling fake stamp and stamp papers. Some of these even used in registering property and insurance documents. In the late 1990s, Telgi's business worth crore of rupees and he was proclaimed as an offender.
Arrest and Sentence
The whole scam came into light when two men were arrested with fake stamp papers in Bangalore. During interrogation, these two men revealed the name of Abdul Karim Telgi. The case was taken over by CBI. It was reported that Telgi had 36 properties around the country and had more than 100 bank accounts in 18 major cities. He was arrested from Ajmer, Rajasthan in 2001. He was absconding for a few months before his arrest. Even after his arrest, Telgi continued his scam from jail with the help of jail officials. The size of scam was valued at Rs. 20,000 crores in 2003, according to Economic Times. Abdul Telgi was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment in 2006 and a fine of Rs. 202 crore. Abdul Telgi was suffering from AIDS and died in 2017 due to multiple organ failure in Bangalore at the age of 56 years.
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