‘Saaki girl’ Koena Mitra sentenced to 6 months jail in cheque-bouncing case

Mumbai, July 22: Bollywood actress Koena Mitra has been convicted by a metropolitan magistrate's court in a case of cheque bouncing. She was also sentenced to simple imprisonment of six months, earlier this month.

According to a report by Mumbai Mirror, the case was registered after a complaint was filed by model Poonam Sethi. According to the complaint, Koena was asked to pay Rs 4.64 lakh, of which Rs 1.64 lakh was the interest component.

The model registered the case against the Musafir actress as many as six years ago after her cheque bounced for 'want of funds.' Koena, as per a report, however, has refuted these allegations and would be challenging the verdict, in all likelihood. Andheri Metropolitan Court Magistrate Ketaki Chavan rejected most of the arguments raised by Koena.

According to report, "Mitra borrowed Rs 22 lakh from Sethi over a period of time. During the repayment of this loan, Mitra gave a cheque of Rs 3 lakh to Sethi, which was dishonoured by the bank. Sethi first sent a legal notice to Mitra on July 19, 2013 (mandatory as per the provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act before the complainant can take action). Mitra, however, failed to repay the amount even at this stage. Sethi then filed a complaint in the court on October 10, 2013. During the hearing, Mitra denied all allegations and sought to defend herself mainly on two grounds: that Sethi did not have the financial capacity to lend Rs 22 lakh, and that she stole her cheques.

The magistrate, however, did not accept her defence. The magistrate, however, observed that Mitra's argument about Sethi's financial capacity could not be accepted and that Mitra had also contended that she was lending money illegally. The court held that the two contentions were mutually contradictory. On Mitra's second contention, the court held that she could not prove that Sethi had stolen her cheques. The court added that Mitra did not mention this allegation in her reply to the notice sent by Sethi, neither did she take any further action."

Koena was quoted saying, "The case is totally false and I have been framed in the matter. During the final argument, my lawyer could not be present in the court and hence my side was not heard and the order was passed without my hearing. We will be challenging the judgement in the higher court and my lawyers are in the process of appealing."