Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi was on March 31 convicted in two cheque-bouncing cases and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. The court ordered him to pay the complainant the amount owed (Rs. 22.50 lakh) within two months, failing which the filmmaker will have to spend an additional year behind bars.
Anil Jethani, who was known to Santoshi, lent a huge amount of money to Santoshi for development of business. For repayment of the same, the filmmaker gave Jethani three cheques totally valued at Rs. 22.50 lakh. However, all the three cheques were dishonoured by the bank with the remarks ‘insufficient funds’. The complainant (Jethani) thereupon served Rajkumar Santoshi a legal notice. He also filed two separate criminal complaints — one for Rs. 17.50 lakh, and another for Rs. 5 lakh — against Santoshi in a court in Rajkot, under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.
Both the cases were heard in the court of Rajkot additional chief judicial magistrate N.H. Vasveliya. Santoshi’s lawyer argued that the plaintiff had misused the cheques issued to him by his client who had repaid the amounts borrowed, and that no financial transaction was pending between the two. The court summoned the bank officials for evidence. Their evidence supported the version of Jethani. The complainant told the court that when the cheques issued by the accused were returned unpaid by the bank, the accused replaced those cheques with fresh ones.