Mumbai, The sessions court has refused to grant bail to a businessman from Bihar, Shahid Raza, who was arrested on October 16 last year for his alleged involvement in an interstate forged postal stamp racket.
Case lodged by postal authorities
Raza was arrested in connection with a case lodged by the Postal Inspector at the Mumbai General Post Office (GPO) with the MRA Marg police station.
It was claimed that the Chief Postmaster General, Madhya Pradesh, had sent a confidential letter to the GPO, Mumbai, informing that five letters sent from Mumbai bore fake postal stamps.
Further investigation revealed that the postal stamps used on the letters were provided by K. K. Services, Bhayander.
Link to multinational company
It was claimed that the letters were linked to a multinational company. It was found that the company had handed over the articles to K. K. Services for booking, and the cheque amount for postage was given to Rakesh Bind, one of the accused in the case.
Details of forged stamp usage
The probe revealed that Bind had submitted a total of 4,986 letters on June 10, 2025, and 6,995 letters on June 13, 2025, out of which the government found certain postal stamps to be fake. It was therefore concluded that the franchisee for stamp paper, held by Bind, was involved in using counterfeit stamps.
It was revealed that Bind was running a franchise and had purchased postal stamps worth Rs 15 lakh while dispatching postal articles using stamps worth Rs 1.80 crore. It has come on record that he procured forged stamps.
Funds transferred to accused
Investigators found that Bind had defrauded the government by manufacturing and using fake postal stamps. It was claimed that the main accused had transferred funds into Raza’s account. Following these findings, the case was registered.
Defence denies involvement
While seeking bail, Raza claimed that he was not the beneficiary of any amount involved in the crime and was not involved in the fabrication of fake postal stamps.
He also contended that he did not know the main accused, who was the franchise holder, and that he was engaged only in the business of money transfer, with no role in the case.
Prosecution cites wider network
Public Prosecutor Anand Sukhdeve contended that, “Based on information obtained from the arrested accused, about four to five other accused persons involved in the offence are from different states, and they had allegedly ordered fake postal stamps worth approximately Rs 7 to Rs 8 crore.”
“It has also come to light that transactions amounting to about Rs 4 to Rs 5 crore were carried out through the accused’s nationalised bank accounts, and relevant correspondence has been sent to the nodal officer of G.P., from whom a reply is awaited,” the prosecution submitted, indicating a large interstate gang involved in manufacturing and selling counterfeit postal stamps of the Indian Postal Department.
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Court cites seriousness of offence
After considering all records, the court rejected Raza’s bail plea, observing that “it appears that the accused has used forged Indian stamps. The said offence is very serious and has branches across India. If the applicant is released on bail, he may commit the same type of offence again.”
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