The Andhra Pradesh police has busted a fake judicial stamps racket and arrested seven people in the coastal district of Guntur seizing court fee stamps and advocates welfare stamps worth 5.36 lakhs.
Guntur Superintendent of Police Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, however, clarified the racket had no connections with Abdul Kareem Telgi gang, which is involved in the multicrore rupee inter-state fake stamp paper scam.
The SP said that the Guntur Police registered cases against all the accused under the AP Control of Organised Crimes Act.
The arrested are Ambati Ramamohan Rao alias Ambati Venkateswarlu (from Vinukonda), Sesham Venkateswarlu (from Darsi), Ramesh (a Vijayawada-based printer), Anisetti Srinivasa Rao (a stamp paper vendor from Chilakaluripet), Thota Murali Krishna, Pinnapati Nelson P Yesudas and Mallela Chandramohan (all from Guntur).
Seizure of fake stamp papers worth Rs 1.7 lakh from Srinivasa Rao (38), a suspended stamp vendor at Chilakaluripet, led to the unearthing of the racket located at Kolkata.
Srinivasa Rao was suspended by principal district judge court at Ongole in May this year on allegations of selling fake stamps. The stamps seized from him were sent for forensic examination at Nashik.
He, however, continued his business by forging the signatures of genuine stamp vendors belonging to Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Chirala and Chennai.
Mohammad Hakeem, a resident of Kolkata, was the kingpin of the gang that was circulating fake judicial stamps in the state through a network in various districts.
The Hyderabad Police had earlier arrested Hakeem and six other accused in March 2003 for selling fake judicial stamps. A case was registered at Marredpally police station in the city. All the accused, who succeeded in getting bail, then shifted to Guntur. The police had then seized fake stamps worth Rs 2.25 lakh from them.
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