The metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri has held filmmiaker Ram Gopal Varma's firm guilty in a cheque-bouncing case filed by a company in Vile Parle, which had provided hard disks to the former.

The court has sentenced Varma, the proprietor of the firm, to three months imprisonment and has asked him t0 pay a compensation of Rs 372 Lakh to the complainant.

The verdict came on Tuesday wherein the court also issued a non-bailable warrant against Varma, as he chose to remain absent during the hearing. The detailed order will be made available subsequently.

Reacting to the news, Varma took to the microblogging site X, saying, “With regard to the news about me and Andheri court, I want to clarify that it is to do with a 7-year-old case of a Rs 2,38 lakh amount relating to my ex-employee. My advocates are attending to it But it is not about settling the amount. The contention was about refusing to be exploited in the attempts to fabricate. Anyway, that's all I can say for now;” Varma said in his post.

A complaint of cheque-bouncing was filed by the partnership firm Shree in 2018, through one of its partners, Mahesh Chandra Mishra, represented by his lawyers Rajesh Kumar Patel and Alok Singh.

Patel and Singh had contended the company had been engaged in the business of supplying hard disks for several years. The complainant’s firm had provided hard disks to Varma’s firm from Feb 2018 to March 2018, for which the complainant had raised a bill of Rs2,38,220.

However, on June 1, 2018, when the complainant deposited the cheque given by Varma to clear the dues, it had bounced, with the remark the cheque was dishonoured because of ‘insufficient funds.

When the complainant approached Varma, he handed another cheque, which bounced for the reason ‘payment stopped by drawer’ and as part of outgoing clearing charges. Hence, the complainant claimed they moved a criminal complaint for cheque bounce with the magistrate court, Andheri.