RAVI DHINGRA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before this Court, by way of above-captioned petitions, seeks quashing of summoning orders in five complaint cases instituted under Sec. 138 and 142 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 ('NI Act') arraigning him as an accused, by the complainant/respondent no. 2, as well as setting aside of orders in these cases by way of which the applications seeking discharge filed by the petitioner before the concerned Magistrate were dismissed.

(2.) This judgment shall govern the disposal of all the above mentioned petitions filed under Sec. 482 and 483 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('Cr.P.C.').

(3.) Brief facts of the case, as disclosed from the complaint filed under Sec. 138 read with Sec. 141 of NI Act, are that the complainant company was engaged in the business of rendering financial services in India as a registered non-banking financial company, and the accused company namely M/s. Silverstar Fashions Private Limited was engaged in the business of manufacturing and exporting ready-made garments. It was stated that the accused company had approached the complainant in March, 2015 with a request to advance loan/financial assistance to meet its working capital requirements to cater to the purchase order received by the accused company and the accused persons namely Ravi Dhingra and Bharat Makkar, for and on behalf of accused company, had negotiated the terms and conditions, thereby giving assurances that the loan amount would be repaid on due date and the same would be secured through the purchase orders. It was further stated that the complainant company acting on such representation and warranties had entered into an arrangement dtd. 18/4/2015 and subsequently, the same was further amended on 23/6/2015 wherein it was mutually agreed that the complainant would pay advance to the accused in order to complete the purchase orders. It was also stated that during the period after execution of the master loan agreement, the accused persons had approached the complainant for enhancement of the limit of credit facility and accordingly total 8 addendum agreements had been executed on different dates and the total sanction amount was ultimately increased to Rs.11.75 crores. It was further stated that the accused company had started defaulting in making repayments of the loan from February 2016 onwards and after repeated requests made by the complainant to repay the amount, the accused persons had issued total five cheques, including cheque bearing number 089768, 089769, 089770 and 089771, all dtd. 22/8/2016 drawn on Axis Bank Limited, Sector 10A, Gurgaon, each amounting to Rs.2.5 crores as well as a cheque bearing number 103970, also dtd. 22/8/2016, drawn on the same bank for Rs.1.75 crores. Thereafter, the complaint had deposited the aforesaid cheques with its banker i.e. HDFC Bank, Kailash building, KG Marg, New Delhi but to the utter surprise of the complainant, all the cheques had been dishonoured for the reason "signature not as per the mandate". Cheque bearing number 089768, 089769 and 089771 had got dishonoured on 23/8/2016 whereas cheque number 089770 and 103970 had got dishonoured on 1/9/2016. Thereafter, the complaint company had issued statutory legal notices dtd. 31/8/2016 as well as 17/9/2016 seeking repayment of the loan amounts, however, upon failure of the accused to make the payment, the complainant had filed the present complaints under Sec. 138 and 141 of NI Act. The details of the complaint cases filed by the complainant/respondent no. 2 are as under: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_206_LAWS(DLH)8_2023_1.html</FRM>