“I destroyed Telgi. Now, if the government does not do anything to bring to book those (officers) who wanted to save Telgi by their acts of omission and commission, I will,” says former Mumbai police commissioner R S Sharma, a day after the special court in Pune discharged him in a fake stamp paper scam case for lack of evidence.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sharma said his troubles started after he refused to drop the name of prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi’s wife from the list of accused in the scam. Sharma alleges that he was asked by a then top official in the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, who had been transferred from Kolhapur, to drop the name.

“It was following this jhagda that a decision was taken to form a special team to investigate the scam and Subodh Jaiswal was asked to head it. But the team never investigated Telgi’s wife’s involvement and it was only after the Supreme Court directed was she made an accused in the case,” he says.

“The FIR of the case was registered by me as the Commissioner of Police, Pune. I recovered fake stamp papers worth Rs 2,200 crore. My joy at being discharged from the case has been doubled as all the 25 persons arrested by me and my team have either pleaded guilty or would be found guilty,” he adds.

For his “frame up”, Sharma blames a “coterie of IPS officers” who conspired against him and "used and misused" the media to conduct a media trial against him. Asked to name those IPS officers, Sharma says, "One of them was former Director General of Police O P Bali."

... contd.