Ahmedabad: An Ahmedabad court sentenced a man from Chhatral town in Gandhinagar to six months in prison after a cheque he issued bounced. He was ordered to pay the complainant Rs 10.33 lakh, equal to the cheque amount, as compensation.The accused, a proprietor of an enterprise, received a loan of Rs 24.95 lakh from a non-banking finance company, Tripoli Management Pvt Ltd. After regularly paying instalments, he defaulted in 2021, and Tripoli issued him a notice in Dec 2021 for Rs 10.33 lakh in dues. He then issued a cheque to the company, which bounced due to insufficient funds in his bank account.
The dishonoured cheque led the company to issue a legal notice to him in Jan 2022, which remained unanswered. The company instituted a criminal case against him under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act with the metropolitan court. The accused appeared before the court in response to a summons and pleaded not guilty.The trial against him commenced, but he did not attend the court proceedings. This resulted in the closure of his right to cross-examine witnesses. In its order, the court noted, “The accused had personal knowledge about the criminal proceedings going on against him, and yet he did not remain present to defend himself at any stage, despite being given enough opportunities. Considering these facts, it is clear from the record that the accused himself did not exercise his right to defence.“After convicting him, the court issued an arrest warrant under Section 70 of the CrPC against him for execution of the punishment of imprisonment.
