Bangalore, July 29: T.G. Sangram Singh, the former assistant commissioner of police arrested by the CBI in the stamp paper scam, has linked the scandal to the kidnapping of thespian Rajkumar three years ago by Veerappan.

Stamp paper case accused Abdul Karim Telgi’s spoils were routed through a relative of the then chief minister, S.M. Krishna, to pay the Rs 20 crore ransom for the thespian’s release, Singh told the additional chief metropolitan magistrate in a confessional statement.

The suspended police officer gave a blow-by-blow account of how he had cracked the stamp paper racket in April 1997 and how he had spotted Telgi at the residence of Krishna’s son-in-law Siddhartha.

Singh also recalled that he had seized fake stamps, stamp papers, rubber seals and chemical equipment during a raid on a Bangalore hotel on April 10, 1997. Five persons were taken into custody, he said.

“Though my seniors — then assistant commissioner of police C.K. Nagaraj and then deputy commissioner of police Praveen Sood — had asked me to proceed with the investigation, I received a phone call the following day from Roshan Baig (then Karnataka home minister in the J.H. Patel cabinet) instructing me not to proceed further with the case as the five arrested were from his side. I obeyed the orders of the then home minister and informed Nagaraj,” he said.

Singh said police brass had used him to carry the ransom amount from Bangalore to Chennai to be given to the secretary of Tamil actor Rajnikanth during the hostage crisis.

The officer explained that he had seen Telgi in Siddhartha’s residence in September 2000, after Rajkumar’s abduction.

“In the third week of September 2000, I was directed by Jaiprakash (inspector-general of police, intelligence) to undertake a clandestine assignment, which involved transporting by road Rs 10 crore to Chennai in the company of Rajkumar’s three sons and delivering it to the secretary of Tamil celluloid superstar Rajnikanth. The money was collected from Siddhartha’s house and transferred to a vehicle for the journey to Chennai during that night.

“Before loading the money into the vehicle in eight-10 heavy suitcases, I was taken to the main hall of the house by Jaiprakash, where Krishna, (Mallikarjun) Kharge and another person, wearing a white safari suit with gold bracelet, were seated.

“While coming out of the house, I asked Siddhartha who the man in the white safari suit was. He told me he was Lala, a big businessman from Mumbai. Then I began to recall hearing about him in connection with the fake stamp paper seizure from Baig, Nagaraj and Sood,” Singh said.

“In August 2002, as ACP, Ulsoor subdivision, I went to StampIT office for deposing before the special team’s chief. I was told to stick to the Telgi case and not deviate to the Veerappan issue. They ignored my request to reveal that Telgi’s funds were used to pay the ransom to Veerappan,” Singh said.