With the seven-year sentence pronounced against him on Friday by Judge UD Salvi, Telgi’s prison term now aggregates to 23 years.
The alleged stamp paper scam kingpin must spend 23 years behind bars
Abdul Karim Telgi will stay in jail longer than a man convicted for life. With the seven-year sentence pronounced against him on Friday by Judge UD Salvi, Telgi’s prison term now aggregates to 23 years, including the MCOCA court sentence of sixteen years.
Telgi and four others were sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment for the murder of his aide Christopher Bhatti, who allegedly decamped with Rs1.6 lakh from Telgi’s factory in 2001. Accused Tabrez Ahmed Telgi, (Telgi’s nephew) and Uday Sawant were acquitted for want of evidence.
The trial was conducted by video-conferencing between Yerwada Jail and sessions court on Friday, Telgi was personally present and addressed the court in English for a lighter sentence as he was dying of AIDS. “My only kin who is alive is my brother who is in custody, there is no one besides me to look after my daughter,” said Telgi.
Telgi’s lawyer MZ Shaikh argued, “Telgi is already sentenced by a MCOCA court to undergo 16 years imprisonment, he is very ill; a heavy sentence will destroy his will to fight the disease. I request that the present sentence be ordered to run concurrently with the earlier one.”
Rahul Jadhav, part of Telgi’s legal team said, “If Telgi is sentenced to a mere two years in each of his cases and the term runs subsequent to each other, he would be in prison for 90 years .” (45 cases by 2). However, Judge Salvi did not accept the defence arguments and the present sentence will subsequent to the MCOCA punishment. When prosecutor Pradeep Gharat stated that victim Bhatti was the sole earning member of his family and aged parents, the judge ordered Telgi to pay a compensation of Rs3 lakh to Bhatti’s kin.
Finally, the judge passed orders to return the property including the grey ‘Opel-Astra’ seized by the police as evidence in the case. Gharat seized this as a chance to get further admission of guilt from the accused saying, “If the accused are claiming the hockey-sticks (murder weapon) as theirs, I have no objection to returning it to them; else I request that all other property be destroyed by the police.”
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