Bollywood actress Koena Mitra is breaking the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The actress has been sentenced to simple imprisonment of six months in a cheque bouncing case.
According to reports, Koena was asked to pay Rs 4.64 lakh, including an interest component of Rs 1.64 lakh, to the complainant, model Poonam Sethi.
Koena Mitra sentenced to 6 months jail
According to reports of Mumbai Mirror, “Mitra borrowed Rs 22 lakh from Sethi over a period of time. During the repayment of this loan, Mitra gave a cheque of Rs 3 lakh to Sethi, which was dishonoured by the bank. Sethi first sent a legal notice to Mitra on July 19, 2013 (mandatory as per the provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act before the complainant can take action). Mitra, however, failed to repay the amount even at this stage. Sethi then filed a complaint in the court on October 10, 2013. During the hearing, Mitra denied all allegations and sought to defend herself mainly on two grounds: that Sethi did not have the financial capacity to lend Rs 22 lakh, and that she stole her cheques. The magistrate, however, did not accept her defence. The magistrate, however, observed that Mitra’s argument about Sethi’s financial capacity could not be accepted and that Mitra had also contended that she was lending money illegally. The court held that the two contentions were mutually contradictory. On Mitra’s second contention, the court held that she could not prove that Sethi had stolen her cheques. The court added that Mitra did not mention this allegation in her reply to the notice sent by Sethi, neither did she take any further action.”
As observed by the court, “Furthermore, in the present matter, said cheque is not dishonoured on the count of ‘payment stopped by drawer’. It is dishonoured on the count of ‘funds insufficient’. If at all, it is presumed that complainant took the cheques from the accused’s house, which was blank and misused them, then the option of stopping the payment was very well available with the accused. But she did not do anything like this. Thus, the conduct of accused prior and subsequent to the dishonoured of said cheque constrained me to hold that this defence is an afterthought and taken only to evade the liability.”
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When Mirror got in touch with Koena, she told the leading tabloid, “The case is totally false and I have been framed in the matter. During the final argument, my lawyer could not be present in the court and hence my side was not heard and the order was passed without my hearing. We will be challenging the judgement in the higher court and my lawyers are in the process of appealing.”