(1.) By this appeal, the appellant takes exception to the judgment and order dated 21-8-2006 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, South Goa, Margao in Criminal Appeal No. 25/2006 by which the judgment and order dated 9-6-2006 passed by the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Vasco in Criminal Case No. 821/OA/NIA/2005 has been set aside. The learned Magistrate convicted the respondent No. 1 for the offence under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act ("The Act" for short) and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for a period of 3 months and to pay compensation of Rs. 5,50,000/-to the complainant/ appellant and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of 3 months. The appellant, is the complainant and the respondent No. 1 is the accused in the case before the learned Magistrate. The parties shall, hereinafter, be referred to as per their status before the learned Magistrate.
(2.) In nutshell, the case of the complainant is as under :
(3.) The complainant examined two witnesses including himself as P.W.I and Advocate Rajkumar Naik as P.W.2. The accused examined himself in defence.