Ghaziabad: An additional district court on Friday sentenced a 55-year-old woman to one year of imprisonment and fined her Rs 1.6 crore in a six-year-old cheque-bounce case. The woman had allegedly issued a cheque to buy a property and got it registered in her name, but the cheque was later dishonoured by the bank due to insufficient funds.Judge Rampratap Singh convicted Kesar Jahan under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, which covers cheques that bounce for lack of funds. “Of the imposed fine, Rs 1.58 crore will be given to the complainant as compensation, and the remaining fine of Rs 2 lakh will be deposited in the state treasury,” the judge said. Failure to pay the fine will mean two more months in jail, and the time already spent in custody will count towards the sentence.The case was filed by Jamirullah Khan, who died during the hearing. His wife Birjis Jabeen and daughters Aizra Khan and Hadiya Khan later pursued it.According to the complaint, Jamirullah and Kesar agreed to the sale of his ancestral property while a civil case over the land was pending in a local court. She issued a cheque of Rs 87.5 lakh from her Oriental Bank of Commerce account, saying it would clear the balance of the price. Believing her, Jamirullah got the sale deed registered in her name but was never paid.He deposited the cheque at Central Bank of India’s Writganj branch on Jan 24, 2020, and it was returned within a week for insufficient funds. A legal notice sent through his lawyer on Feb 11, 2020, reached Kesar the next day, but she neither paid nor replied, after which he filed the complaint.When her statement was recorded on March 5, 2025, the woman denied the allegations. “I do not know how the complainant received the cheque. The signature on the cheque is not mine. I do not owe the complainant any money in the form of a transaction or any other amount, nor has any transaction ever taken place,” she said.The court, however, noted that an agreement dated March 3, 2017, for the sale of the land was signed by Jamirullah as the first party and by Imran Khan, Sameerullah Khan, Nadeem Iqbal and Kesar Jahan as the second parties. The cheque was given in consideration for the sale.The judge said the evidence proved that the cheque was drawn on the accused’s account, bore her signature, was presented within its validity period and was dishonoured. A notice was sent on time, but she did not pay within 15 days of receiving it.Under Sections 118(a) and 139 of the Act, the law presumes that a cheque is issued to clear a debt, and it is for the accused to disprove this. “The accused has neither presented any concrete and reliable evidence nor shown any circumstances that could cast doubt on the veracity of the complainant’s statement. A mere negative statement or general allegation is not sufficient to rebut the legal presumption,” the judge said. The court held that she had issued the cheque with the intention to commit fraud.
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