Rajkumar Santoshi Case: Filmmaker's Lawyer Says 'We Shall Appeal At A Higher Forum'

Rajkumar Santoshi Case: The filmmaker has been given a thirty-day stay by the court to challenge the ruling.

Rajkumar Santoshi's lawyer issues statement in cheque bounce case.

Source : IMDb

New Delhi: Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi was fined ₹ 2 crore and given a two-year prison sentence for bounced checks by a local court in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The filmmaker has been given a thirty-day stay by the court to challenge the ruling.

The complainant, shipping tycoon and industrialist Ashok Lal, reportedly lent Mr. Santoshi ₹ 1 crore for a movie project. According to Mr. Lal's allegation, the filmmaker sent him ten cheques totaling ₹10 lakh per cheque to cover the debt, which later bounced. Not only this, when the lender Ashok Lal tried to contact Rajkumar Santoshi, he became unavailable, after which Ashok Lal filed a case in the court.

Following the case, a statement has been issued by Rajkumar Santoshi's advocate. Stating that they will appeal against the magisterial court's judgement, advocate Mr. Binesh Patel said, "First of all, the court has stayed its judgement for 30 days granted Mr.Santoshi bail after we sought time to appeal against the judgement at a higher forum," Patel said, adding, "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."

He further continued, "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."

When the court issued summons to him in this case and imposed a fine of Rs 15000-15000 on every cheque bounce, Rajkumar did not take the summons, but when he accepted the summons, he did not appear in the court during the hearing.

On Saturday, the Jamnagar court has not only sentenced Rajkumar Santoshi to two years in jail, but has also directed him to pay Rs 2 crore instead of Rs 1 crore.

Meanwhile on the work front, Rajkumar Santoshi is helming 'Lahore: 1947' which also stars Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta and is produced by Aamir Khan.