Sir,
I m a law abiding indian citzen. My friend started a joint venture of Real Estate consultancy with two of his friends around 4 years back.
As it was a joint venture so a couple of bank accounts (joint a/c) with cheque books issued and were used for financial transactions. Few blank cheques leaves had signature of my friend to be used for later / sudden transactions in case of my friend was out of city/stn.
Due to some reasons they had to close the venture amicably around three years back. At the time of departing one of the partner kept the cheque books with him silently and the same went unnoticed by my friend.
The bank a/c were also closed by intimating the respective banks later.
At a later date (after arnd 6 - 8 months) other two partners joined hands and mischeiviously started using those cheques bearing my friends signatures. As a/c were closed n did not had balance so these cheques got dishonoured. These people lodged complaints and legal cases under sec 138 n 420 against my friend.
Later my friend had also lodged FIR/ written complaints about lost cheque book with local Police. But the court is not taking any cognisance of such FIR/complaints and implicating my friend for Bouncing of cheques under 138/420.
My query is how can my friend being innocent , get relief and how should the case be tackled as these miscreants have also given some of the cheque leaves to some other people who have also put the cheques after a span of 2-3 years and got the same bounced.
It is requested to kindly advise how to go about handling and resolving these legal cases.
Thanking you
Krishna