Cheque bounce case: Ram Gopal Varma had enough chance to pay, says court

Mumbai, Feb 14 (PTI) Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was given "sufficient opportunity" to make payment and punishment was required to deter the "human tendency" of issuing cheques without intention to honour them, a Mumbai court held while sentencing him to three months in jail in a cheque bouncing case.

Varma was convicted by Andheri Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Y P Pujari on January 21 under the Negotiable Instruments Act. The reasoned order was made available on Friday.

The court had also directed him to pay the complainant a sum of Rs 3,72,219 in three months.

Varma has moved an application in the sessions court seeking suspension of the sentence.

While Varma was not present when the order was passed on January 21, the magistrate said "it would not be illegal to pass the judgment of conviction in absence of an accused" as provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) allow it.

"Hence, I found it to be just and proper to pass the judgment of conviction in absence of the accused where the accused is bent upon to cause delay rather than exercising his rights for defence. Admittedly the accused has been given sufficient opportunity to make payment of the cheque from notice of the complainant till conclusion of trial but the accused failed to make it," the order said.

"To deter the human tendency to hand over cheques without intending to honour the same, punishment is required to be imposed upon the accused rather than giving benefit of Probation of Offenders Act," the magistrate said in the order.

The Probation of Offenders Act allows release of offenders on probation or after due admonition and for matters connected therewith.

Advocate Rajesh Kumar Patel, appearing for the complainant's firm, had submitted an affidavit in court stating that firm had provided hard disks between February 2018 and March 2018 on the request of the accused, after which tax invoices amounting to Rs 2,38,220 were raised.

As per the affidavit, the accused issued a cheque on June 1 that year to the complainant, which was dishonoured for insufficient funds, while a second cheque of the same amount was also dishonoured due to "payment stopped by drawer".

The complainant was left with no option but to avail legal remedy, and a complaint of cheque bounce was registered against Varma's firm in 2018, the affidavit said.

Varma was granted bail in the case in 2022 on a cash surety of Rs 5,000.

While Varma had claimed the cheque did not bear his signature and was not issued by him, the magistrate rejected this stating "it did not find any material brought by the accused to show the probable defence".

Further, the accused did not reply to the demand notice issued by the complainant and has, hence, failed to avail the first opportunity available with him to raise this defence, the court said.

"Therefore, I hold that the complainant has duly proved the accused has issued the subject cheque from his account in favour of the complainant towards the legally enforceable debt," the court observed.

After considering the circumstances, amount of cheques, nature and manner of the offence, the court held that sentence to suffer simple imprisonment for three months will be "proper and justified".

Varma is best known for films like "Satya", "Rangeela", "Company" and "Sarkar", among others. PTI