Karnataka HC denies bail to photocopy shop owner in fake stamp paper case

The High Court of Karnataka has refused bail to a photocopy shop owner observing that creating/selling fake stamp paper cannot be considered as a lighter offence. Justice K Natarajan said that if the petitioner is granted bail, there is every possibility of tampering the witnesses and absconding is also not ruled out.

The petitioner Shyamaraju was running a photocopy center in the vicinity of Kandaya Bhavan in Bengaluru city. He was arraigned as an accused in the case registered by the Halasurugate police in Bengaluru city and the trial court had rejected his bail petition on September 23, 2022.

On credible information, the Halasurugate police had set up a decoy and placed order to buy e-stamp for the face value of Rs 10 and Rs 50, while the accused had charged Rs 11,000 for the same. On July 19, 2022, the petitioner along with another accused Venkatesh brought the e-stamp papers when the police caught them red-handed and seized ten stamp papers.

Opposing the bail petition, the government advocate argued that the petitioner was caught red-handed and further claimed that if the petitioner was only running a photocopy center, then there was no necessity for him to keep old stamp papers in his shop.

According to the petitioner, the old stamp papers found in his shop were not the e-stamp papers to say that they were counterfeit stamp papers.

Justice K Natarajan has pointed out that the offences alleged against the petitioner and others are of creating the fake stamp papers, facilitating the other accused to cheat the public at large by creating the fake documents and filing frivolous litigation before the civil court and collecting money from the innocent site owners under the guise of agreement of sale and the GPA.

“The other accused were involved in selling the e-stamp papers which caused loss to the state exchequer. The petitioner is actively participated in collusion with accused no 3 (Venkatesh) and used to print the stamp papers for the purpose of registration. This petitioner was also caught red handed with the stamp paper. Therefore, it cannot be considered as a lighter offence as argued by the counsel for the petitioner,” the court said.