Mumbai, November 12
The fate of Mumbai Police Commissioner Ranjit Sharma will be decided in the next few days, with a special investigating team (SIT) finding several acts of omission and commission against him in the fake stamp paper case masterminded by forger Abdul Karim Telgi.
As earlier directed by the Bombay High Court, the SIT today presented a report on its investigations on the conduct of Sharma as Police Commissioner of Pune when the Telgi scam came to light in that city a few years ago.
While classifying the contents of the report as secret, the court agreed to a suggestion by Advocate-General Goolam Vahanvati that the report be sent to Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for a decision on the fate of Sharma. Mr Vahanvati, however, mentioned in the court that the report listed nine instances of omission and commission by the Police Commissioner.
The court directed the Maharashtra Government to take a decision on Sharma within a fortnight.
The order was given by Chief Justice C.K. Thakkar and Mr Justice Abhay Oak after the court received a report from the STD, headed by former Director -General of Police S.S. Puri.
Giving directions, the court said it would keep in mind that Sharma was due to retire on November 30 while taking a final decision on Sharma’s case.
Mr Majeed Memon, counsel for Mr Anna Hazare, well-known social worker, had earlier contended that if Sharma had done something wrong while in office, action should be taken before he retired from service.
Accordingly, the court ordered a copy of today’s order to be given to the state Advocate-General for submission to the Chief Minister for taking a decision on Sharma..
The court has given the Maharashtra Government time till November 27 to decide on action, if any, against the Police Commissioner.
Sharma, who was grilled by the SIT last week, was not present in the court.
However, Mr Anna Hazare, whose public interest litigation, which resulted in the probe, was in court.
Meanwhile, counsel for the Karnataka Government informed the court that 14 compact discs (CDs), containing about 100 hours of conversation between Telgi and several persons, had been submitted to the SIT on November 10.
Mr Vahanvati said the SIT required some more time to hear the conversation and submit a report on this to the court.
Meanwhile, state government sources here say that Shinde has drawn up a contingency plan to transfer Sharma to a low-profile post in case of strictures by the court.
Meanwhile, the high court today asked the SIT to go into the allegations of suspended Assistant Commissioner of Police M.C. Mulani and police inspector Prakash Deshmukh, shielding prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi, and even consider arresting the duo if there was evidence against them.
TNS adds from New Delhi:
BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday demanded a CBI probe in to the multi-crore stamp paper scam , expressing surprise over the the Congress’ silence on the issue.
“The Congress President must advise its Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka to come forward and hand over the stamp scam inquiry to the CBI,” Mr Naidu told newspersons here at a specially convened press conference at his residence.
