Keystone Cops

Much of the muck that was raked up in the Rs 3,500-crore fake stamp-paper scam last year is sticking to Maharashtra police bigwigs. A new inquiry has tarred the Mumbai police chief R.S. Sharma. Even before he took charge a few months ago, Sharma, then the Pune police chief, stood accused by scam investigator S.M. Mushrif of shielding the relatives of kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi. Now Sharma has been accused of going slow on charging Telgi under the MCOCA. Sharma has spoken out against a "conspiracy" to malign him. DGP Subhash Malhotra, more piqued by the leakage of the report than its contents, has quit the IPS Officers Association. Alarmed, CM Sushilkumar Shinde called a meeting to play referee.