Don’t file any case against engineer
2) your construction work would come to a halt
3) your uncle would be dragged in the mess and his property would be attached
4) it would ruin your relationship with uncle
Money laundered by uncle through building construction
My name is jayaram.s and my brother ram.s living in coimbatore.we both are married.our father is mr.j.shantharam and mother late.s.anuradha.my father j.shanthram had an ancestral property in chennai,for which he was the sole owner until 2009.this property was a registered settlement from his grandfather mr.vasu prasad. On 2010,my father has been convinced from his brother j.balaji to settle him with an equal share without the knowledge of myself, my bother and my mother for which my father had obliged and had done the same out of affection. On 2015, my father was again convinced by his brother to demolish the old building and re construct a new house in that property. My father and his brother managed to construct the house with their shares from another property which belonged to their grandfather also. On constucting this house mr.balaji took the lead by giving the construction approval to an engineer with whom only my uncle had an long term friendship relations. The construction agreement for this house had been favoured to overpriced rs 2050/per sq.ft- but where it was only around 1300/per sq.ft at that time. We (my father, I and my brother) had never been involved in any transactions to the engineer because of the trust my father had on his brother. We all now are convinced that my uncle has laundered lumsum money. Recently we have received confirmed news that my uncle has invested money around 40 lakhs in a finance partnership business along with one of our relative in Hospet. My uncle’s current salary is only around 15,000/month. For him to invest 40 lakhs is absolutely not possible without him laundering money involving the construction engineer. Please advice on how to proceed further. Can we file a case on the engineer? The price difference per sq.ft is around 750 Rupees. Appreciate your time and advice.
Asked 6 years ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu
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8 Answers
Dear client
You should file a police complaint for money laundering and criminal breach of trust against your uncle and that engineer.
You can also add that your uncle and engineer together did fraud with you and your father and also done criminal conspiracy for doing fraud.
You uncle had definitely cheated you but it was purely a commercial transaction. Engineer order his service on this price, May be higher, but agreed by your uncle on behalf of your father.
Engineer is professional and provides service on his fees, which may be any higher, Contracting party(uncle) can refuse to it.
So, can file complain against uncle but cahnces of recovery is rare.
If engineer has taken money of any product more than market price than criminal case agasint him, for services - NO.
If your father had signed the construction agreement containing the rate of construction per square foot as Rs.2050, he cannot now say that he relied upon his brother and blindly signed the agreement in good faith. He cannot have any legal recourse against the engineer now.
Seems the engineer and your uncle conspired to deceive your family. Cheating case?
Regards
G.Rajaganapathy
Yes you can go ahead with your complaint against the engineer.
The engineer will quote the same price what your uncle has informed your father because they may be hand in glove with each other.
However you cannot dispute it at this time when the construction is completed.
When your father had a chance to enquire about the details of the construction he never bothered to take care of his interests in this subject, now even if he wants to take any action on anyone, he cannot do so because the engineer will say that it was his rate, if at all he was not satisfied with the ate he could have cancelled the contract at that time itself.
Therefore in my opinion there may not be any case maintainable.
Further, this is not ancestral property, it was your grandfather's property which was transferred to your father by him by a registered settlement deed, thereby your father became an absolute owner of the property therefore he need not take your permission nor consent to give 50% share to his younger brother.
There is no illegality in your father's acts so far, thus out of frustration, dont do any mistake.
Better settle dispute amicably through an mediator. If you take any legal action against your uncle or engineer construction work would stop.
