Abdul Karim Telgi (born 1961) is a convicted counterfeiter from India. He earned money by printing counterfeit stamp paper in India.
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Telgi's mother was Shariefabee Ladsaab Telgi,[1] and his father was an employee of Indian Railways.[2] His father died while he was young. Telgi paid for his own education at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, an English medium school, by selling fruit and vegetables on trains. Eventually he moved to Saudi Arabia. Seven years later, he returned to India, at which time he began a career in counterfeiting, originally focusing on fake passports.[2]
Telgi moved to more complex counterfeiting when he began to counterfeit stamp paper. He appointed 300 people as agents who sold the fakes to bulk purchasers, including banks, insurance companies, and share-broking firms. The size of the scam was estimated to be more than 20,000 crore (US$3.8 billion).[3]
One aspect of the scandal that caused much concern was that it required the involvement of many police officers and other government employees. For example, one Assistant Police Investigator was found to have a net worth of over 100 crore (US$19 million), despite making a salary of only 9,000 (US$171) per month.[2]
On 17 January 2006 Telgi and several associates were sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment.[4] On 28 June 2007 Telgi was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 13 years for another aspect of the scandal. He was also fined a Rs 100 crore. The Income Tax Department requested that Telgi's property be confiscated to pay the fine.[5]
Mudrank (The Stamp) is a film based on the stamp scandal. It was finished in 2008, but Telgi filed legal challenges to prevent its release.[6] Telgi alleged that the details covered in the film would damage his legal appeals. As of 2011, the film has not yet been released.