Hi.Through an online advertisement, I contacted a person for a rental flat. He said he had leased that flat for 3 years from the owner and was looking for tenant to rent out. On liking the flat, he signed a rental agreement with me where he was mentioned as caretaker of the property with no mention of owner's name and took deposit money of Rs 2.5 Lakhs. Somehow luckily i got the owner's contact and found out that they did speak about renting the flat but he never signed any lease agreement with owner and told him he was taking flat for himself. At this point i backed out from taking the flat but this middle man till now has returned only Rs40,000. He is showing no sign of returning remaining Rs2.1 Lakhs. I had some contacts through which the case got referred to the police. I have given complete written description to the police and due to the influence of contacts they are looking into the case but till now even the police has not been able to recover any money from him. I am ready to file an FIR but police is saying through FIR there is no chance of getting money but they way they are trying to pressurize him and pay back that way it might help. But nothing positive has happened till now. The middleman is a complete fraud person who has done similar cheating with other people which police themselves told me. He was in contact with me and kept saying he will pay and kept on deferring the dates. Police has spoken to him on phone and threatened him too but he is not scared at all. He is making his lawyer speak to the police. Please advice what i should do. I am in immense crisis.
Ask a question and receive multiple answers in one hour.
Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.
1. You acted in a casual manner by giving the deposit without verification. You are free to file the FIR for the offence of cheating under 420 IPC, but unless he is arrested there will be no motivation for him to return the money.
2. A civil suit for recovery of money will have to be filed eventually if the FIR does not produce the desired result.
file FIR against said person for criminal breach of trust and cheating under section 406 , 420 of IPC
2) also issue him legal notice to refund your balance amount of Rs 2.1 lakhs with interest
3) file suit to recover your money with interest
I have 3 questions here:- 1. If i file an FIR under section then can he be arrested by police without warrant (since IPC 420 means cognizable offence) 2. Police are saying if they arrest him he will get bail very easily. But i read on internet that IPC 420 is non bailable offense. So how can he get bail? Who is correct on this. 3. If after FIR he is arrested and produced at court, then do i need to hire a lawyer to fight my side of the case?
1) you don't need to hire lawyer after filing of FIR
2) public prosecutor would appear in your case
3) if accused has defrauded number of people in similar fashion he would not be granted bail easily
When the lease/rent agreement was suspicious, you should have stopped the same at that spot itself.
If the local police are not cooperating or not effective yo may lodge a complaint with the economic offences or district crime branch police to have more effective way of handling the issue.
They know how to recover money from such fraudsters.
In the meantime you may even contemplate to file a money recovery suit through civil court.
1. The police can arrest him and get him remanded to judicial custody by producing him before the judicial magistrate.
2. The difference between bailable and non bailable offence is that the accused can be enlarged on the bail by police after formal arrest in the bailable offence, but in the non-bailable offence, he will be arrested, remanded to judicial custody and apply for bail, which will be considered on merits.
3. Your case will be prosecuted by police through the assistant public prosecutor, you need not engage a lawyer.
Sir,
It seems you did not approach any lawyer till date to discuss this issue. This is serious offence. You can approach a lawyer for further action.
thanks,
Adv.Niranjan,
Mobile - .
