Mumbai:
Rajkumar Santoshi's lawyer Binesh Patel confirmed that the filmmaker has been granted bail in the check bouncing case and the court has stayed the verdict for the next 30 days.
During a hearing in the case on Saturday, the court sentenced Rajkumar Santoshi to two years in jail while asking him to repay double the amount he owes to a businessman. The Jamnagar court in Gujarat granted filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi a 30-day stay over the order to appeal against an order. This allows Rajkumar Santoshi to challenge the verdict in a higher court.
In the same context, Rajkumar Santoshi's lawyer Binesh Patel stated that they will appeal against the magisterial court's verdict. According to the statement of Rajkumar Santoshi's lawyer, “First of all, the court stayed his sentence for 30 days and granted bail to Mr. Santoshi after we sought time to appeal against the verdict in a higher forum,” Patel said.
He added: “The prosecution has not presented any evidence to show that Mr Santoshi had accepted any money at all. The Complainant itself has admitted that a third party had collected the said money from the complainant. In return, the third party had provided money. changed 11 checks of Rs.10 lakh each, which Mr. Santoshi was not aware of. The magisterial court overlooked these facts and ruled against us. Therefore, on the basis of invalid and false claims, changes have been made in the checks and the fact that the complainants do not want to present or engage the said third party who collected the money is beyond the knowledge of Mr. Santoshi. So, we will appeal to a higher forum on the above points and more.”
The complainant, Ashok Lal, a leading industrialist and shipping magnate from Jamnagar, alleged that he received ten checks of Rs 10 lakh each from the filmmaker, totaling Rs 1 crore, which were subsequently refunded.
Piyush Bhojani, the businessman's lawyer in the case, confirmed the conviction to ANI on Saturday.
According to the lawyer, Ashok Lal contributed Rs 1 crore to Rajkumar Santoshi's film.
Rajkumar Santoshi repaid the tycoon and reportedly sent him 10 checks of Rs 10 lakh each.
After the checks were deposited in the bank within the stipulated time, they were returned, the businessman claimed, adding that he first tried to contact the filmmaker on the matter.
However, he claimed that all attempts to contact the filmmaker failed, following which he filed a lawsuit under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Rajkumar Santoshi is all set to release his next directorial venture 'Lahore 1947' which is being produced under the banner of Aamir Khan Productions. This project marks the first collaboration between Sunny Deol, Santoshi and Aamir Khan.
This film also marks the 17th venture under Aamir Khan Productions (AKP).
Rajkumar Santoshi and Sunny Deol previously delivered three blockbusters together in the form of 'Ghayal', 'Damini' and 'Ghatak'.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)