AHMEDABAD, OCT 3
A court in Gandhinagar on Saturday sentenced a former BJP Lok Sabha MP to two years in jail and fined him Rs 2.97 crore in a cheque bouncing case. This comes three days after the Gujarat High Court had ordered the lower courts to hear criminal cases against the lawmakers on daily basis following a directive of the Supreme Court.
Principal Senior Civil Judge DS Thakur at Kalol also ordered that former Surendranagar MP Devji Fatepara will have to undergo an additional jail term of three months if he failed to pay Rs 2.97 crore from the fine amount of Rs 2,97,10,000 to complainant Prabhatsinh Thakor, the latter’s lawyer Bhanu Patel informed.
Thakor approached the court after Fatepara’s cheque of Rs 1,48,50,00 bounced and the latter failed to reply to a notice sent in this regard, Patel said.
Fatepara had written the cheque to return the money he had taken from Thakor in connection with a 2018 land deal that failed go materialise, he added.
Fatepara had won the 2014 general elections from Surendranagar but the BJP denied him a ticket in 2019.
