Rajkumar Santoshi granted bail within 24 hours in cheque return case

The Jamnagar Court in Gujarat allowed filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi a 30-day stay on an order to appeal the order, as per news agency ANI. This allows the director to challenge the verdict in a higher court. He was recently sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Jamnagar court in a cheque bounce case. Also read: Rajkumar Santoshi sentenced to two years in jail in cheque bounce case, to pay ₹2 crore fine
News18 quoted Rajkumar Santoshi’s lawyer, Binesh Patel, confirming that the filmmaker has been granted bail as the court has stayed its judgment for the next 30 days. Binesh Patel said his client will be moving against the magisterial court’s judgement and said, as per the portal, “First of all, the court has stayed its judgement for 30 days and granted Mr Santoshi bail after we sought time to appeal against the judgement at a higher forum.”
“The prosecution didn’t produce any documentary evidence to prove that Mr. Santoshi had taken money at all. The prosecution itself has admitted that a third party had collected the said money from the complainant. In-return the third party had provided altered eleven cheques of Rs.10 lakh each, which Mr Santoshi was not aware of it. The magisterial court overlooked these facts and ruled against us. Therefore, on the ground of invalid and false claims, alterations happened in the cheques, the fact that the complainants do not want to present or call-in the said third party who had collected the money, about Mr Santoshi does not know. So we shall appeal at a higher forum with the above highlighted points and even more,” added Rajkumar’s lawyer.
The case began when the complainant, Ashok Lal, a prominent industrialist and shipping magnate from Jamnagar, claimed that he received ten cheques of ₹10 lakh each from Rajkumar Santoshi, totalling ₹1 crore, which subsequently bounced.
Piyush Bhojani, the advocate for the businessman in the case, confirmed to ANI on Saturday that the filmmaker was sentenced to two years in jail. According to the advocate, his client Ashok Lal contributed ₹1 crore to Rajkumar Santoshi’s film.
The complainant claimed that once the cheques were deposited in the bank within the stipulated time frame, they bounced. The businessman also alleged that he first tried to establish contact with the filmmaker over this matter.
However, he said that all attempts to establish contact with Rajkumar Santoshi failed, after which he filed a lawsuit under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
During a hearing in the case, the court on Saturday ordered a two-year jail sentence for Santoshi while asking him to repay double the amount as a fine to the businessman.
Rajkumar Santoshi is all set to come out with his next directorial, Lahore 1947. The film features Sunny Deol in the lead role. Reportedly, Preity Zinta will be joining him for her Bollywood comeback. The film is being produced under the banner of Aamir Khan Productions. This marks the first collaboration between Sunny Deol, Santoshi, and Aamir Khan.