Bengaluru: The 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Monday directed Labour Minister Santosh S. Lad to pay over Rs. 7.5 crore to film producer Rockline Venkatesh.

Lad, in 2014, stood guarantor for a loan and issued cheque for the same, but has been accused of not honouring the cheque following which a cheque bounce case had been filed. The money was borrowed to make Tamil film Kochadaiiyaan starring Rajinikanth, Deepika Padukone, Shobhana and Jackie Shroff.

Meanwhile, the Minister said that the transaction was purely commercial and to help his friend Murali Manohar of Media One GlobalEntertainment Ltd.

According to him, the money was borrowed from Sheetal Developers to make Kochadaiiyaan and to discharge that loan, money was borrowed from Rockline Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

He said that he stood guarantor for Media One GlobalEntertainment Ltd. and agreed to pay Rs. 4.2 crore to Rockline Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and I issued cheques.

He said that as the borrowers did not pay the money to Rockline Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. on time, the case was filed against him.

He claimed that it was done without making any proceedings against the principal borrowers. He said that he deposited the principal amount of Rs. 4.2 crore by way of Demand Draft on June 13, 2017 before the court.