New judge will hear Telgi cases

The government on Tuesday de-notified Chitra Bhedi, the special CBI judge handling the Telgi case. Ten days ago, Bhedi made Radheshyam Mopalwar, the joint CEO of MIDC, an accused in the three stamp paper scams involving Abdul Karim Telgi. 

The de-notification means she will no longer handle the Telgi cases. Bhedi was also hearing an application by one of the accused asking the court to make former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and three officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) accused in three of the cases.

The application was slated for hearing on Wednesday. The de-notification order addressed to MT Joshi, the principal judge, from the the Bombay High Court’s registrar general has a hand-written reference from the state department. The note is dated July 17, the day on which Mopalwar was booked for forgery, cheating, and fraud under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Deshmukh, who was the state revenue minister in 1994, had endorsed Telgi’s application for stamp vending licence in March 1994. After Deshmukh’s endorsement, Mopalwar who was then the superintendent of stamps cleared Telgi’s papers. And the papers were cleared when several applications were pending for more than three years.
Bhedi had been handling the Telgi cases for many years, including one year in Mumbai. She was earlier a special MCOCA judge in Pune and had convicted Telgi and several others who had pleaded guilty in the case.

In 2007, Telgi was sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined Rs251 crore. The judge discharged officers Pradeep Sawant, RS Sharma, and Vashisht Andhale in the special MCOCA case.

“Three cases were nearing completion. We may have to argue the cases again before the new judge,” Pradeep Gharat, the special public prosecutor, said. “She was well-versed in these cases as she was handling them for a long time.”

Another CBI judge, SP Kulkarni, too has been de-notified. Both the judges were primarily handling CBI anti-corruption cases.