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Abdul Kareem Telgi, prime accused in the multi-billion rupee fake stamp paper scam, was on Saturday sentenced to 10 years in jail by a special court in Bangalore.

Besides Telgi, four of his other associates were also given 10-year jail sentence and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000.

Special Judge Vishwanath V Angadi pronounced the sentences, the first in the scam cases in Karnataka.

Reading out the sentence, Justice Angadi said the accused were found guilty of forgery and cheating the government and a private firm (Sami Labs Ltd), located in the Peenya industrial estate in Bangalore, by selling fake stamp papers valued at Rs 421 million.

"The prosecution had proved beyond doubt the guilt of the accused," the judge said.

Telgi, who is serving a similar sentence in Yerwada jail at Pune after he was convicted on similar charges in the Maharashtra fake stamp paper case, heard the sentence through video conferencing.

The other four accused are Bhadruddin, Irfan Ahmed, Wazir Ahmed Salik and Pradeep Kumar.

The case, registered by the Peenya police in 2003, was among the 28 cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation under the direction of the Supreme Court. The CBI examined 35 witnesses and produced 138 documents, including copy of messages exchanged on pagers and transcripts of phone calls reportedly made to and from Telgi.