The petitioners have filed the petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short, 'the Code') with a prayer to quash the order dated 23rd April, 2003/24th April 2003 passed by the Judicial Magistrate, Patna in Complaint Case No. 34(c) of 2003 whereby cognizance of offence under Section 420 IPC and 138 of the N.I. Act has been taken against the petitioners.

2. The complainant B. K. Sinha, one of the partners of M/s Veena Theatre, Station Road, Patna who is an exhibitor of Motion Pictures filed complaint Case No. 34(c) of 2003 alleging therein that M/s Anjana Movies (P) Ltd. is a company engaged in business of distribution of films and the accused petitioners Sanjay Suchanti and Sushil Kumar Jain were the Directors of the said Company and were responsible for the conduct of the business of the Company. In the 1st week of March 2000, the two petitioners approached the complainant and persuaded him to book films for exclusive release in the cinema hall of Veena Theatre on usual terms and conditions. The two petitioners represented before the complainant that M/s Anjana Movies (P) Ltd. had acquired the distribution, exhibition and exploitation right of those films for the circuit of Bihar and Nepal from their respective producers and the aforesaid pictures were being registered in Bihar Motion Picture Association also.

3. The picture in which the offers were made by the petitioner were Majboor, Mawali, Rasta, Bawandar etc. The complainant being convinced with the genuineness of the offer because of the past business relation, agreed to accept the same and paid a total sum of Rs. 7,41,000/- to the accused as advance against the future supply of those films for exhibition in the Hall of Veena Theatre.

4. On receipt of the aforesaid amount, petitioner Sanjay Suchanti granted receipts in respect of acknowledgement of the amounts for each of seven films as mentioned above on behalf of the Company.

5. Contrary to, the promise and pretentions of the accused, the aforesaid films for which advance was paid could never be made available and the complainant in spite of several reminders and personal follow up in the matter.

6. After frantic pursuit, petitioner Sanjay Suchanti through his covering letter dated 15th March 2002 informed the complainant that M/s Anjana Movies (P) Ltd. have decided not to release the pictures in question due to certain reasons and, therefore, they have to refund the advance amount of Rs. 7,41,000/- as per the details given therein. Along with the letter seven numbers of post dates cheques drawn under the signature of accused petitioner Sanjay Such anti were personally given by him to the complainant. The details of cheques are as follows.

Sl.No. Cheque No. Date Amount (in Rs.)

1. 131814 1.10.2002 1,41,000/-

2. 131804 7.10.2002 1,00,000/-

3. 131808 14.1.2002 1,00,000/-

4. 131809 21.10.2002 1,00,000/-

5. 131810 7.11.2002 1,00,000/-

6. 131811 7.11.2002 1,00,0001-

7. 131813 11.11.2002 1,00,000/-

7. The complainant further mentioned in the complaint petition that on mutual understanding, the cheques were post dated which were to mature on different dates in the month of October - November, 2002. After these long dates of maturity for their presentations were given due to the reasons that there was already an award declared by BMPA against M/s Ajanta Movies (P) Ltd. of Rs, 4,00,000/- in another matter and, therefore, the accused was requested to discharge the liability arising out of the award by BMPA on priority basis and, therefore, he had pleaded or sufficient long time to arrange the money to honour the commitment.

8. The aforesaid seven cheques on attaining the maturity were deposited in the Bank for credit to the account of M/s Veena Theatre but the same were returned back through letter dated 13th November, 2002 of Andhra Bank on the ground that the Accounts of the accused - petitioner had already been closed as early as on 6th September, 2001.

9. Petitio