Rajkumar Santoshi, who is all set to kick off Lahore 1947 with Aamir Khan, Sunny Deol, and Preity Zinta, has been sentenced to two years in prison for a cheque bounce case. The court has ordered the filmmaker to pay double the amount owed to the complainant.
According to a report by news agency ANI, Jamnagar resident and owner of Shreeji Shipping, Ashok Lal, lent Rs. 1 Crore to Santoshi for a film in 2015. The director repaid the loan with 10 cheques of Rs. 10 lakhs each, which bounced in December 2016. Despite efforts to contact Santoshi, Lal filed a case under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
Now, the filmmaker’s lawyer has issued a statement saying the court has stayed its judgement for 30 days and granted him bail. The statement from Rajkumar Santoshi’s advocate, Binesh Patel states that they will appeal against the magisterial court’s judgement. “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-retuen the third party had provided altered eleven cheques of Rs.10 lakh each, which Mr. Santoshi was not aware of it. 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 (sic).”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Rajkumar Santoshi, Sunny Deol and Aamir Khan will come together for the first time in Lahore 1947.
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