(This article is authored by Alar)

Tamil film director N Lingusamy, who was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by a lower court in a cheque bounce case, has got a reprieve from the Madras High Court. The court has suspended his jail term on the condition that he deposits 20 percent of the cheque amount within six weeks.

The case was filed by PVP Capital Limited, a finance company that had lent Rs 1.03 crore to Lingusamy and his brother Subash Chandra Bose for the production of their film Yenni Yezhu Naal in 2014. The brothers, who own the production house Thirrupathi Brothers Film Media Private Limited, had issued a cheque of Rs 35 lakh to PVP, which bounced due to insufficient funds.

PVP then approached the Saidapet Metropolitan Magistrate Court, which convicted Lingusamy and his brother of cheque fraud and awarded them six months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1.03 crore each on August 22, 2022.

Lingusamy and his brother challenged the verdict in the Madras High Court and sought suspension of their sentence. They also claimed that they had already deposited 20 percent of the cheque amount in the Saidapet court as per an earlier order,  and was ready to deposit another 20 percent.

Justice V Sivagnanam, who heard their appeal on Monday, accepted their plea and suspended their sentence till further orders. The court also directed them to deposit another 20 percent of the cheque amount within six weeks and report to the trial court. Lingusamy is a well-known director in Tamil cinema who has made hit films like Run, Sandakozhi, Paiyaa and Anjaan, whose last directorial was The Warrior.