Woman acquitted in cheque bounce case

A woman has been acquitted by a Thane court in a cheque bounce case on the ground that the complainant failed to prove the allegations against her.
Deepak Shripatrao Bhosle of Bhandup had stated in his complaint that he had advanced a loan of Rs five lakh to Bhanumati Bhoir, who ran a tiffin service, and she issued a cheque for the sum which bounced for insufficient funds.
He had alleged that Bhoir had issued the cheque dated February 11, 2010 drawn on IDBI Bank which when deposited with Canara Bank was returned unpaid on September 3, 2010.
The complainant had also served a legal notice to the woman which remained unanswered.

The woman's counsel, A D Chavan, told the court that the entire case was totally cooked up. He said the woman had never taken any loan from the complainant and had never issued any cheque for the said amount.
The woman admitted that a signed blank cheque was issued by her sometime back as security which was allegedly misused by the complainant.

Thane's First Class Judicial Magistrate R T Ghogle observed that there is no documentary evidence on the point of advancement of loan amount to the accused. Thus, it cannot be said that the cheque was drawn in discharge of liability, he said.

"It is the defence of the accused that the complainant had misused the blank signed cheque without her consent. A sum of Rs 5,00,000 is a huge amount. Thus, the possibility of misuse of cheque by Deepak cannot be ruled out," he noted.
"It is axiomatic from record that the disputed cheque was issued in blank form, only with signature of accused. Thus it is quite probable that it might have been given as security for certain amount," the magistrate said.
The cheque shows the name of payee, date, the amount in figures and words written in different handwriting and ballpen than the signature of the accused, he observed.

All these facts also create reasonable doubt about the truthfulness of the complainant's case, the court noted while adding that it is probable that the complainant has not honoured the trust which had been reposed on him.
The complainant has failed to prove that the cheque was issued by the accused for existing debt or legal liability, the magistrate said while recently acquitting the woman of the offence punishable under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.