Woman gets one-year jail in cheque-bouncing case

A Delhi court has sentenced a woman to one-year simple imprisonment in a case of cheque bouncing. It also asked her to return the Rs 21.7 lakh defaulted amount to complainant Sangeeta Chadha, failing which she will have to undergo six months’ imprisonment.

According to the complaint, Kajal Kharbanda had issued two cheques of Rs 16.7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh in favour of Chadha after she failed to sell a plot at Prakash Mohalla Garhi in East of Kailash in South Delhi to her as per an agreement between the two. Chadha had earlier made an advance payment of Rs 20 lakh to the convict to purchase the land for an amount of Rs 50 lakh.

When the complainant deposited the two cheques at the Karnataka Bank in East of Kailash on which they were drawn for encashment, they were dishonoured due to insufficient funds in Kharbanda’s account. The complainant then filed a complaint for recovery of the amount after the other party failed to respond to the legal notice served on her for payment of the amount.

Holding Kharbanda guilty, Metropolitan Magistrate Ashok Kumar said: “In view of the foregoing discussion, it is proved that the cheques were presented against a legally recoverable liability in favour of the complainant and the cheques got dishonoured for reason of insufficient funds.

“The cheques were drawn and issued on account of the accused and for which payment was not made within the period of 15 days of the legal notice. In view of the aforesaid facts the accused is convicted for the offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.”