Sale deeds, affidavits under lens as Punjab cops probe stamp paper scam

Jupinderjit Singh & Gaurav Kanthwal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 20

Hundreds of property documents, sale-purchase agreements, powers of attorney, affidavits and bank loans in Punjab and Haryana and other parts of the country are under scrutiny following the unearthing of a Telgi-like stamp paper scam in Mohali. Some of the stamp papers are suspected to have been executed in the name of dead persons and used in old property disputes.

Modus operandi

• Old stamp papers were not used for stated purposes by legal stamp vendors, who issued these under fake names, even of dead people
• Documents with fake bank stamps/seals were prepared and used for civil purposes, including disputed properties

This is the third such scam — unearthed in February with the arrest of five suspects from Mohali — in the past two years. While the first two did not have major ramifications, concerns are being raised over safeguard measures introduced following the 2001 Abdul Karim Telgi scam to keep fake stamp papers or their misuse in check. Surprisingly, the Mohali stamp paper suspects, allegedly led by Harish Arora, had been hoodwinking the authorities for the past eight years. Old stamp papers issued under fake names, even of dead individuals, were used to prepare documents with fake rubber stamps/seals of various banks. These documents were then used in disputed properties, affidavits or to get loans. Thirteen ledgers, maintained by the suspects, containing hundreds of entries of these documents are being looked into to ascertain the extent of the scam.

“It is a voluminous investigation. We are looking at a wide network involving possible collusion with bank and revenue officials, besides real estate dealers who took stamp papers from the suspects,” said SP Ravjot Kaur Grewal. “Their main area of operation was Zirakpur where a large number of illegal property executions seemed to have taken place. Entries of other areas too had been found. The suspects seemed to have procured stamp papers from different cities of Punjab,” she said.

“The main suspect is not even a licenced vendor. Why would anyone take stamp a paper issued a long time ago in someone else’s name from a vendor? It smacks of criminal intent,” said Grewal.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said the scope of the case was being ascertained by a special investigation team (SIT), headed by the SP(R), Mohali.

As many as 333 unused stamp papers were recovered from the prime suspect. The scam is likely to run into several crores of rupees. The prime suspect also supplied stamp papers to private sector banks, including HDFC and ICICI, through a vendor code allotted to his firm.