Mallya’s aide gets 18 months jail in cheque bounce case

HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad court on Thursday sentenced A Raghunathan, a close aide of fugitive chief of Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya, to imprisonment for 18 months

HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad court on Thursday sentenced A Raghunathan, a close aide of fugitive chief of Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya, to imprisonment for 18 months in connection with two cheque bounce cases.

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The third special magistrate court at Erram Manzil also imposed a penalty of Rs 20,000 on Raghunathan, the chief financial officer of Kingfisher Airlines, who has been named accused No. 3 (A-3) in the case.

Raghunathan, who has avoided attending court proceedings for the past five months, paid the penalty amount in the court itself. Simultaneously, he also filed a petition seeking suspension of the sentence for a period of 30 days, pleading that he was only an employee of the company who acted according to the instructions of the chairman. Magistrate justice M Krishna Rao referred the petition to the Nampally Criminal Court in the city.

The case pertains to bouncing of two cheques of Rs 50 lakh each by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd to GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, towards charges for using the facilities at the airport for Kingfisher Airlines flights. The case was filed under the Negotiable Instruments Act.

As per the GMR counsel, a total of 17 cases have been filed against Kingfisher Airlines in different courts over outstanding amount of Rs 22.5 crore, which it owes to GMR.

The court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against Kingfisher Airlines, its chairman Mallya and Raghunathan on the grounds of dishonouring the two cheques. Counsel for GHIAL Ashok Reddy also submitted a petition to the court seeking a direction to Kingfisher Airlines to provide fresh addresses of the airlines and also Vijay Mallya.