THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE E.V. VENUGOPAL CRIMINAL REVISION CASE No.827 OF 2022

O R D E R:

This Criminal Revision Case is filed by the petitioner-accused against the judgment dated 21.11.2022 passed in Criminal Appeal No.160 of 2018 by the learned VIII Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Ranga Reddy District at L.B.Nagar (for short, “the appellate Court”), confirming the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the learned II Special Magistrate at Hasthinapuram, R.R District in C.C.No.132 of 2016 dated 18.01.2018, wherein the revision petitioner has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (for short “NI Act”) and sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for one year and pay fine of Rs.35,00,000/- (Rupees Thirty Five Lakhs Only) as compensation to the complainant under Section 357 (3) of Cr.P.C.

2. Heard Mr.G.Gurumurthy, learned counsel representing Mr.P.Animi Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr.Padala Praveen Kumar, learned counsel for respondent No.2 and Mr.E. Ganesh, learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing on behalf of respondent No.1-State.

3. The brief facts of the case are that the accused is running film distribution. Respondent No.2 - complainant known the accused through his sister Smt.Subhadra Devi. The accused requested complainant for financial assistance of Rs.30 laksh to meet his business needs and promised to return the same with interest @ 24% per annum. By trusting the accused, complainant gave an amount of Rs.30,62,000/- in installments during January, 2015 to March, 2015 through online transfers and self drawn cheques and cash. Accordingly, after receipt of the amount from complainant, the accused has executed a promissory note dated 28.03.2015 for an amount of Rs.30,62,000/-. Again the complainant paid an amount of Rs.99,07,000/- to the accused. When the complainant demanded the accused to repay the amount, he stated that he had participated in a gold auction conducted by Air Cargo, a Government of India undertaking and the accused had successful in a bid for 156 gold coins and one Vaddanam and shown number of counter foils of bank payments at SBI. The accused misrepresented the complainant and it is essential for him to pay amounts to various Government Departments and banks within a specified period, in order to get release the gold coins allotted to the accused in the auction and accused requested the complainant for want of additional amount of Rs.1 Crore. On believing the letters and bank counter foils shown by the accused, the complainant had advanced additional amount of Rs.99,07,000/- in installments from April, 2015 to July, 2015 through online transfer, self drawn cheques and through direct cash. The accused received total amount of Rs.1,29,69,000/- from the complainant. Accordingly, the accused executed promissory notes to the complainant. When the complainant insisted the accused to repay the amount, the accused issued four postdated cheques bearing Nos.034607 for Rs.50,00,000/-, 034608 for Rs.50,00,000/-, 034609 for Rs.30,00,000/- and 034610 for Rs.30,75,000/-, dated 12.05.2016 in favour of the complainant drawn on ICICI Bank, Barkatpura branch. The complainant got doubt on the character of the accused with regard to counter foils and letters from various departments, he approached the SBI, Local Head Office, Hyderabad, there, they confirmed that no payments were made through the bank and the account numbers indicated in the counter foils shown by the accused to the complainant are not genuine and they are fake and forged. Thereafter, the complainant approached the RBI and Law department, Government of Telangana to verify the genuineness of the letters of correspondence from these departments, they confirmed that they did not issue any such correspondence and no such letters were dispatched from their office. On that the complainant approached the Commissioner of Police and lodged a complaint against the accused and