New Delhi : Delhi court has awarded one year jail term to Prakash Industries Ltd’s Managing Director in 20-year-old cheque bounce cases and directed him and the firm to pay Rs 10 crore each to two Sahara group companies.

It directed Prakash Industries and its MD V P Aggarwal to pay Rs 5 crore each to Sahara India Airlines Ltd (SIAL) and Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd (SIFCL), which had given a loan of Rs 5 crore each to the firm, through him, in May 1996. The convicted company had handed over cheques to pay back the money. However, these got dishonoured and both the complainant companies filed cases in this regard.

“Considering the length of the proceedings, this court is of the opinion that even if the cheque amount involved would have been deposited in bank, it would have been doubled by now,” Metropolitan Magistrate Nupur Gupta said. The court noted that the present matter was pending since 1997 and “the very purpose of Negotiable Instruments Act seems to have been frustrated”.