Cheque bounce case: Cop(Constable) declared proclaimed offender

The Times of India Delhi 6th Feb 2008 Page 4

In what might be seen as a huge embarrassment for Delhi Police, a city court on Wednesday declared one of its constables a proclaimed offender (PO) in a case of cheque bounce. The complainant in the case, who is also a head constable with the Delhi police, has alleged that the constable who has been declared PO is with the Paschim Vihar police station and is currently attached to the Summon Pool branch of the Delhi police under the Kirti Nagar police station.

Metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Bansal declared the police constable Laxmi Narayan a PO after taking into consideration the execution of the process under the relevant sections of the Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC). ‘‘The process under sections 82 of CrPC...has been validly executed. Accused constable Laxmi Narayan is declared a PO,’’ the court said. The court also directed a copy of the order to be sent to the concerned DCP. According to the complainant’s counsel, advocate Tarun Rana, his client, head constable Mukesh Giri, who is with the police station at Sadar Bazar, had extended a loan of Rs 40,000 to constable Narayan. A cheque subsequently issued in return by Narayan in favour of the complainant in June 2005 was dishonoured by the bank due to insufficient funds.

A legal notice was then sent to Narayan but the complainant has said that even after the notice had been served, the accused had failed to make the payment in the stipulated period of time. The complainant then moved the court, after which the accused was served with summons. Later, bailable and non-bailable warrants were issued. Interestingly, during the hearing in the case on Tuesday, the counsel of the complainant told the court that the constable declared proclaimed offender is currently working with the Paschim Vihar police station and is attached to the Summon Pool branch of the Delhi police under police station Kirti Nagar but the police have still not been able to trace him.

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