Scam 2003 - The Telgi Story: Who is Abdul Karim Telgi, whom Hansal Mehta-Tushar Hiranandani's webseries is based on?

After the blockbuster success of Scam 1992, Hansal Mehta released the second instalment of the Scam franchise titled Scam 2003, for which he turned the creative director. Based on the life of Abdul Karim Telgi, the web series released on 1st September and turned out to be a hit among the viewers. While the show is garnering amazing reviews from the netizens, let’s find out, who was Telgi and his controversial journey of infamous counterfeiting scam.

Early life Telgi’s initial life was full of hardships as his father, who was an Indian Railway employee, passed away when Abdul was young. He sold fruits and vegetables on trains to fund his education. Later, he moved to Saudi Arabia and when he came back after 7 years, he engaged himself in building a counterfeit empire. Scam journey Initially, he focused on forging passports followed by a business, Arabian Metro Travels, to facilitate the export of manpower to Saudi Arabia. Telgi’s company was in the business of producing fake documents that allowed labourers to bypass immigration checks, a practice known as ‘pushing’ in the industry. Soon, he made a big move by entering the scam business of counterfeit stamp paper. He hired 300 agents to sell these fakes to bulk purchasers like banks, insurance companies, and stock brokerage firms. The scale of this business was estimated insanely around Rs 30,000 crore. Comes under the radar of law  Several police officers and government employees were involved in the scam. In 2006, Telgi was sentenced to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment followed by an additional 13-year sentence in 2007. He was even asked to pay a fine of Rs 202 crore. Extravagant life and demise Telgi was known for living an extravagant life, which included his frequent visits to dance bars. As per reports, he was in love with a bar dancer, Tarannumn Khan on whom he lavished Rs 90 lakhs in a single evening at the bar. In 2017, he passed away due to meningitis.