Film-maker Ram Gopal Varma has moved the Dindoshi sessions court against the order of a judicial magistrate sentencing him to three months in jail in a cheque bouncing case.
Last month the metropolitan magistrate’s court, Andheri, had held Varma’s firm guilty in a cheque bouncing case filed by a Vile Parle-based firm. Since Varma was not present in court, it also issued a non-bailable warrant against him.
Varma challenged the order before the sessions court earlier this month. The appeal came up for hearing on Thursday, wherein his lawyer sought bail for the film-maker and sought suspension of the sentence. The sessions court judge has issued a notice to the complainant and scheduled the case for hearing next month.
The complaint was filed by a firm named ‘Shree’ through one of its partners, Mahesh Chandra Mishra, in 2018. Its lawyers Rajesh Kumar Patel and Alok Singh had contended that the company has been engaged in the business of providing hard disks for the last several years. The firm had provided hard disk to Varma’s company from February 2018 to March 2018, for which the complainant had raised a bill of Rs2,38,220.
However, on June 1, 2018, when the complainant deposited a cheque given by Varma to clear the dues, it bounced “for the reasons funds insufficient”. When the complainant approached Varma, he gave another cheque, which too bounced for the reason “payment stopped by drawer”. Hence, the complainant claimed that they moved a criminal complaint for cheque bouncing with the magistrate court, Andheri.
The film-maker had disputed that the cheques did not bear his signature nor were they issued by him. However, the magistrate rejected his claim, saying: “It did not find any material brought by the accused to show the probable defence.”
