New Delhi, Mar 15: The Supreme Court today directed 12 states to make available to the CBI the entire records of 48 cases shortlisted by it for investigation into the Telgi fake stamp paper cases. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia also said the Karnataka government orders under Section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Court (CRPC) prohibiting taking away of main accused Abdul Karim Telgi from his prison would not come in the way of the CBI taking over his custody for investigations.

The court also directed the 12 states to provide necessary infrastructural and resource facilities to the CBI for effective investigation into the 48 cases, including 23 from Maharashtra and ten from Karnataka. The remaining cases which the CBI would investigate into are three each from Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, two each from Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh and one each from Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala and West Bengal.

The direction came on five public interest petitions, including one by advocate Ajay Agarwal, seeking a unified CBI probe into the Rs 32000 crore fake stamp cases spread over whole of India within a time bound frame.

Agarwal had also demanded that the apex court should monitor the progress in the investigation by the CBI.

Agarwal said the Karnataka government order would hamper the investigation in the case as Telgi was the main accused and the CBI could not be prohibited from taking him into custody for interrogation.
Senior counsel Ashok Desai and counsel Mukesh Giri, appearing for the Maharashtra government told the court that the state government had already handed over all the necessary records and documents pertaining to the case to the CBI.

The court asked the CBI to file its status report regarding investigation in the 48 cases within four months.

Bureau Report