NEW DELHI, June 15: Dishonour of a cheque due to insufficient funds in an account has landed a man back in jail for six months after a Delhi court dismissed his appeal against his conviction and sentencing.
Upholding a magisterial court decision sentencing Delhi resident Kamruddin Ali, Additional Sessions Judge Suresh Chand Rajan said there is no need to interfere with the trial court’s order and directed that he be “taken into custody”.
“There is no need to interfere in the judgement passed by the trial court. Appellant is on bail. He be taken into custody to face the sentence awarded by the trial court,” the court said.
The judge has passed its order while hearing a plea of Ali, who appealed against November 2011 order of the magistrate which sentenced him to six months in jail.
Convicting Ali, the trial court had also directed him to give a compensation of Rs 1.2 lakh to the Citi Financial.
According to the prosecution, Ali in 2008 had approached the Citi Financial Consumer Finance India Ltd for personal loan and he availed the loan.
In partial discharge of his liability he issued cheque on December 23, 2009 for a sum of Rs 1.2 lakh, which was returned unpaid by the payee bank with the reason ‘funds insufficient’.
The counsel for Ali submitted before the court that all the amount had already been paid to the complainant and no amount is due against the cheque in question.
The counsel further said the cheque was issued as security which was handed over at the time of disbursement of the loan and it was blank at that time.
Brushing aside Ali’s counsel submission, the court said, “The appellant has failed to produce any receipt from the complainant showing that he has paid the amount due to the complainant. Had he paid some amount, it was incumbent upon him to produce receipt against the said payment.
“But he failed to do so. His contention that he issued the cheque in question as security cannot be considered as he never denied that he did not take the loan from the respondent to the tune of Rs 1,20,000 and he failed to produce any receipt against repayment.”
Sentencing Ali to six-month imprisonment for providing a cheque which bounced, ASJ Rajan said, “The cheque amount is also Rs 1,20,000 which in my opinion was legally recoverable debt. Therefore, the contentions of the counsel is not well founded.”
“Ali’s plea that the cheque was given as security or that he repaid the nine instalments does not inspire confidence… it could not be proved with cogent evidence and relevant documents,” the court said. (PTI)
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