Asish Chakraborty, Abdul Karim Telgi’s Calcutta conduit, who was arrested in Hyderabad on Wednesday, confessed to officials probing the nationwide stamp paper scam that he had started his racket from Calcutta seven years ago.

Chakraborty said he had carried on for a year and a half and then shifted to Chennai. He was netted 10 days after Karnataka police freed him on January 19. The investigating agency kept the Bengal government posted on his links with the stamp paper scam. The government has already appointed R.K. Mohanty, additional director-general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the nodal officer to monitor the probe.

“There are 11 cases in the Calcutta Police area and nine across the state in the past seven years in which fake stamp papers were seized. Officers are working out whether Chakraborty has any links with these cases or not,” said a CID official.

Chakraborty, a resident of Behala, started his career as a sub-inspector of the Central Industrial Security Force, but he was dismissed from service. “He would buy fake stamp papers from Md. Fayed, who had a small shop on Bright Street. After leaving the city, he developed links with V. Ethiraj, another suspect in the racket, who was also arrested on Wednesday in Chennai,” said a CID official.

“Chakraborty engaged some agents in Hyderabad to sell his counterfeit stamp papers. He was not interested, however, about spreading his network in Maharastra,” said a police officer.