New Delhi: The plea of fake stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi`s nephew Tabrej Ahmed Telgi to set off his five-year sentence in an offshoot case here against the jail term served by him since January 2004 as under trial in another case in Pune has been dismissed by a Delhi court.
Additional Sessions Judge Narinder Kumar denied relief to Tabrej, dismissing his appeal against a magisterial court`s ruling which had sentenced him to five years in jail in a fake stamp case registered by Delhi police on April 21, 2006 against Telgi and others, including Tabrej.
While sentencing Tabrej to five years in jail, the city`s additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) had also set off his sentence against his imprisonment since the registration of case here in Delhi, i.E., April 21, 2006.
Originally arrested in Pune on January 4, 2004 for his alleged role in a different case of the scam, registered there, Tabrej had pleaded for setting off his sentence since the day of his arrest in Pune case.
Tabrej was arrested in Pune for counterfeiting government stamps and was sentenced to seven years in jail by a sessions court there and was lodged in Yerwada Central Prison there.
The Delhi ACMM`s court had sentenced Tabrej on June 11, 2009, on confession of his guilt and had also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him for various offences including possessing and selling counterfeit government stamp, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery.
While setting off his sentence since 2006, the ACMM had also stipulated that on failure to pay the fine, he will have to undergo additional imprisonment for one year.
In the same case, Abdul Karim Telgi had been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Tabrej had filed his appeal from Yerwada jail against the ACMM?s order praying that his jail term be set off with effect from January 4, 2004, which was his date of arrest in Pune.
However, his appeal was received in the office of district and sessions judge on July 6, 2012, by which time the limitation period of 30 days for filing an appeal had already expired and the same came to be barred by limitation.
Even though barred by limitation, the court of ASJ heard his appeal and asked the CBI, to which the case was transferred later, to file the reply.
Besides the concession of set off of jail term, Tabrej pleaded that the fine amount be reduced as he cannot afford to pay the same.
The CBI argued that Tabrej was arrested in 2004 in some other case and that his sentence awarded by the ACMM in a case registered here in 2006 cannot be set off against his date of arrest in the previous matter.
"Having regard to the nature of the offences confessed to have been committed by the accused appellant (Tabrej) and the sentence awarded by the ACMM to him and his co-accused, this court does not find that any concession is called for on the point of section 428 CrPC," the ASJ said.
"This court does not find any ground to allow prayer of accused to consider that the substantive sentence awarded by the ACMM should have run from the day he was arrested in some other matter.
"Be that as it may, the appeal is barred by limitation, the same is hereby dismisses," the judge ordered.
The police had said in its case that Abdul Karim Telgi was running the business from jail and his nephews Parvez and Tabrej were controlling it.
The ACMM had also convicted and sentenced Tabrej`s co-accused Suhail Khan, Mansoor Ahmed, Deepak, Mohsin, Asif, Pramod, Shekhar and Peter Ruzai to five years in jail each and varying amounts of fine.
PTI
