Rs 20 crore paid in Rajakumar case: Ex-ACP

Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Sangram Singh on Thursday claimed to have handed over Rs 20 crore to Tamil film star Rajnikant's manager in connection with a case of abduction by forest brigand Veerappan and went to Chennai twice in this context.

Though he did not mention the case, Singh left no one in doubt that he was referring to the abduction of Kannada film icon Rajakumar and his subsequent release.

"They made maximum use of me and now they are making me a scapegoat to protect an ex-minister in the Telgi stamp scam," he claimed.

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Singh, who had been arrested by the CBI along with two others on Wednesday, alleged in a Bangalore court that he was being made a 'scapegoat' by former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, then home minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge, former urban development minister D K Shivakumar and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to 'protect Roshan Baig'.

At the height of the fake stamp paper racket, Baig had resigned as a minister in the S M Krishna cabinet for suspected links to the stamp scam.

Claiming to have busted the stamp scam, Singh said though he made 10 arrests in 1997, two of his senior officers did not take it seriously. He also alleged that a top Intelligence official in the state was also in the know of the scam from the beginning.

Singh made the claims when first Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate V H Sambrani asked him if he was ill-treated in CBI custody.

Singh claimed that CBI made him sleep on newspapers and did not take him to a hospital for a cardiac-related check-up he sought.

Singh then said he wanted to make a submission and went on to make the claims about being made a 'scapegoat' and the Rajakumar abduction.

Singh and two others - suspended inspector Vali Basha and sub-inspector V A Khan - were remanded to CBI custody till July 13. Basha and Khan also alleged 'ill-treatment' by the CBI. The judge directed the latter to follow certain Supreme Court orders and see that the arrested policemen are not ill-treated.

Baig and D K Shivakumar dismissed the allegations.

"Anybody can make any allegation. He (Sangram Singh) is now making the allegation to avoid the issue (his alleged involvement in the stamp scam)," Baig, who is in Delhi, told PTI over telephone.

Shivakumar denied that money exchanged hands to secure Rajakumar's release from Veerappan. "Persuasive methods" helped the S M Krishna government to free the actor, he asserted.

At present, Krishna is abroad and could not be contacted for his comments.

The Rajakumar Abduction: complete coverage
The saga of Veerappan