A Special Court trying CBI cases on Wednesday convicted and sentenced Abdul Karim Telgi, the key accused in the the multi-crore fake stamp paper case, to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI).

Special Judge N Velu, who awarded the sentence, also imposed a fine of Rs three crore. The non-payment of the fine would entail three more years of RI, the judge said.

Telgi has already been sentenced to 13 years RI by a Pune court in connection with the fake stamp paper scam. Today’s sentence would run concurrently along with the Pune court order, judge Velu said.

Allowing the petitions filed by Telgi and four others pleading guilty, the judge convicted and sentenced Abdul Wahid, Balaji and Jacob Chacko to five years’ RI.

He convicted and awarded three years RI to another accused, Peter Kennedy.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs three lakh on Abdul Wahid, on the non-payment of which he would have to undergo 18 months RI.

Balaji was imposed a fine of Rs two crore, in default, he would undergo two years of RI. Rs three lakh fine was imposed on Jacob Chacko, in default, to undergo 18 months’ RI.

The judge imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Peter Kennedy, in default, to undergo seven and a half months’ RI.

The judge read out the sentence to Telgi, Wahid and Chacko who are lodged in Yerwada prison in Pune, through video conferencing.

Balaji, who was on bail in this case and lodged in Bangalore prison in connection with a similar case, was produced before the court.

Kennedy, who was also on bail, was present in the court when the order was pronounced.

The judge said that the period of sentence already undergone by these five accused would be set off. Source: hindustantimes