A Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced a 33-year-old man and a close aide of the fake stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi, to three-and-a-half-years' rigorous imprisonment for possessing and selling counterfeit stamp papers.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain held Parminder Singh, guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 258 (sale of counterfeit government stamps), and 259 (possession of counterfeit government stamps) and 69 of Indian Stamp Act and slapped a fine of Rs 8,000 on him.

According to the prosecution, during the period from September 2002 to March 2004, Singh, a close aide of the kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi, operating from Delhi entered into a criminal conspiracy with his close associates Vinod Kumar and Deepak Kudale and caused the wrongful act and sold counterfeit government stamps as genuine.

They dishonestly induced the general public to purchase such counterfeit stamps and to use them for the purpose of cheating, as per the prosecution.

Delhi police had on March 15, 2004, arrested Singh and Vinod Kumar, at Vikaspuri in West Delhi and claimed to have seized fake stamp papers with a face value of more than Rs 31 lakh, the prosecution said.      

The court had on August 9 held Singh guilty of selling and possessing counterfeit government stamp papers and had fixed for order on quantum of sentence for Wednesday.

Parminder had earlier pleaded guilty to possessing and selling of counterfeit government stamps in the national capital region.