DEVENDRA KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal revision has been filed for setting aside the judgement dtd. 17/2/2023 passed by the court of learned Sessions Judge, East Singhbhum in Criminal Appeal No. 43 of 2022 dismissing the appeal filed by the petitioner. The petitioner has been convicted and sentenced by the Court of Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Jamshedpur for committing offence under Sec. 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (hereinafter referred to as N.I. Act) and has been directed to pay Rs.18,50,000.00 as fine amount out of which an amount of Rs.18,45,000.00 has to be given to the complainant as compensation. The petitioner has been sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for one and half year with default sentence.

(2.) The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the complainant was working in a bank. In order to get loan, the petitioner was in negotiating term with the complainant and he was informed that certain blank cheques were to be deposited with the bank and therefore these cheques were handed over to the complainant which were misused. He has submitted that there was no legally payable debt, rather blank cheques were signed and handed over only by way of security. The learned counsel for the petitioner has also submitted that there was no legally payable debt on the date when so called agreement dtd. 6/12/2017 was executed.

(3.) He has further submitted that as per the complaint, the petitioner had approached the complainant in December 2017 for a loan and the agreement was entered on 6/12/2017 and thereafter the loan was disbursed. He submits that the cheque numbers have been duly mentioned in the agreement and therefore on the date the cheques were delivered to the opposite party No. 2, there was no legally payable debt. He submits that the complainant had improved his case in his evidence by stating that the loan was advanced to the petitioner during the period from 2015 to 2017.