Telgi claims he was awake during narco-analysis

The prime accused in the multi-billion rupee fake stamp paper scam Abdul Karim Telgi gave a new twist to his sensational disclosures during the narco-analysis conducted on him three years ago by claiming he was awake and conscious during the interrogation.

“I was awake and conscious during the narco-analysis test conducted on me” said Telgi in a four-page letter written from Yerawada Central Jail, where he is presently lodged, to his advocate in Bangalore M T Nanaiah.

In the letter, whose copies were made available to the media in Bangalore, Telgi said he remembers the test to have lasted around 35 minutes. “I was conscious. I know all the questions that were asked. I pretended to be unconscious”, he said.

But, Telgi, who claims that he was shown the video tape of his narco analysis later, said he had never implicated either Maharashtra politicians Sharad Pawar, Chaggan Bhujbal and Vilas Rao Deshmukh. “They had showed me the video cassette of the test. There was no mention of either Pawar, Deshmukh or Bhujbal”, Telgi said.

He described as “1,000 per cent” fake the video cassette of his narco analysis that hit national headlines last week. He said the video tape had clearly been “fabricated”. For, there was no mention of the Maharashtra politicians.

Further, Telgi said the original video cassette of his narco analysis contains “some bigger news” and “some bigger names. “Why are they hiding that ? Why don’t they show the genuine cassette of my test”, Telgi said.

The letter throws light on the dogged refusal of Telgi to identify the persons who posed a threat to his life despite repeated prodding by interrogators during his “trance”. While the interrogators could extract the full details to certain questions, they failed in other crucial questions like the source of threat to Telgi.