P V AKHILESH Vs. C V AJAYAKUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant in a prosecution for the offence punishable under section 138 of the N.I. Act is the appellant herein as he is aggrieved by the judgment dated 20.3.2002 in C.C.No.1157/98 of the court of Judicial First Class Magistrate-Mattannoor, by which the learned Magistrate acquitted the accused under section 255(1) of Cr.P.C.

(2.) The case of the complainant is that, in the month of February 1998, the accused borrowed Rs. 63,000/- from him as loan and for its repayment, issued a cheque dated 25.5.98 drawn on his account in the Panniyam Service Co- operative Bank Limited. When the cheque was presented for encashment by the complainant, it was returned with a note "funds insufficient". Therefore, the complainant made a demand for the cheque amount by issuing lawyer's notice to the accused. Though the accused received the notice, he did not pay the amount. Therefore, the accused has committed an offence punishable under Section 138 of the N.I. Act.

(3.) With the above allegation, the complainant approached the trial court by filing a complaint, upon which cognizance was taken, in due compliance of the formalities for the offence under section 138 of the N.I. Act and during the trial of the case, Pws.1 and 2 were examined from the side of the complainant and Exts.P1 to P6 were marked. From the side of the defence, DW1 was examined and Exts.D1 and D2 were marked. The defence taken by the accused is that he had borrowed a sum of Rs. 15,000/- from the brother in law of PW2, namely one Nalinakshan and at the time of the borrowal of the said amount, he issued a blank signed cheque as security and it is the further case of the accused that though the entire amount which was due to the said Nalinakshan has paid, by demanding more amount, he did not return the cheque and according to the accused, it is the said blank cheque, now misused by the complainant and preferred the complaint.