Court allows man to walk free due to old age

A Delhi court allowed a septuagenarian man, who was earlier awarded a one-year jail term in a cheque bounce case, to walk free with lesser fine due to his age.

A Delhi court allowed a septuagenarian man, who was earlier awarded a one-year jail term in a cheque bounce case, to walk free with lesser fine due to his age.

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"After taking into consideration the old age of the appellant (Laxmi Narayan), the impugned order on sentence is modified and the appellant is sentenced to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the complainant," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Rajneesh Kumar Gupta said.

The court partly allowed the plea of 75-year-old Narayan who had challenged the award of the jail term and a fine of Rs 3 lakh.

The ASJ reduced the fine and asked Narayan to pay the money to complainant Neelam Devi who had advanced a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh to him nearly four years ago. Narayan later issued a cheque to Neelam which got dishonoured with the remark from the bank that the payment has been stopped by him.

Neelam filed a complaint against him alleging initially Narayan did not pay her back the amount along with the interest. Later, he issued a cheque which got dishonoured. In his defence, Narayan submitted that the cheque was stolen from his house and Neelam misused it.

The ASJ upheld the order of the trial court with some modifications. "I do not find any infirmity or illegality in the impugned judgment (of trial court) and accordingly it is upheld and impugned order on sentence is modified to the extent as discussed," the ASJ said.