Cheque bounce: Man's jail term reduced as no criminal history

A court here has reduced the jail term of a man from one year to six months in a cheque bounce case of 2006, noting that the sentence was on the higher side as he had no criminal antecedents.
Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain reduced the jail term of North West Delhi resident Narender Gulshan by six months in an appeal filed by him against a trial court order which had sentenced him to one year imprisonment and had asked him to pay a compensation of Rs 4.50 lakh.
The ASJ, however, asked him to pay the money asked by the trial court to one Girish Aggarwal who the filed the case against him.

"Since, there is nothing on record to disbelieve the submission that appellant (Gulshan) had no criminal antecedents and he is sole bread earner of his large family, I am of the view that sentence for a period of one year is on higher side.
"Accordingly, sentence of imprisonment is reduced from one year to six month rigorous imprisonment, however he shall pay a compensation to the tune of Rs 4.50 lakh to respondent as directed by Trial Court," the court said.
"Perusal of the record reveals that respondent filed the criminal complaint in the year 2006, thus appellant had deprived the respondent from enjoying the said amount for a long period of nine years, thus appellant is required to compensate the respondent," the court said.

According to the prosecution, Gulshan had taken friendly loan of Rs 2.65 lakh from Aggarwal and later issued three cheques to pay back the money.
However, the cheques returned unpaid with the remark 'insufficient funds'. Thereafter, Aggarwal sent Gulshan a legal notice but he failed to make the payment.
Aggarwal then filed a criminal complaint against Gulshan before the trial court.