We are a trading firm, we sold a rubber pipe for conveying oil to customer, he used it in place of metal pipe and as a result incurred loss as the pipe leaked from end fitting, He filed a FIR of Cheating Case ipc 420 in his local area police station , the police served us a notice to appear before them on 10th July I.e Sunday. It strongly appears 1. He is using his influence to harass us and make us pay for the loss. 2. Police wants us to travel 300 km and appear before them for no fault of ours.
Since FIR is registered you have no option but to cooperate with the Police.
While meeting the Police brief them about the fault of the buyer who willingly used rubber pipe while it was not meant to be used in that way.
If the Police still harasses you, meet the higher officials and ask for leniency from Police.
The case does not seem to have much merit and hence consider Quashing to challenge the same in high court.
in case notice is issued you have to appear before local police and have your statement recorded
2) since you are merely trader you must have bought rubber pipe from reputed manufacturer and must be having ISI mark
3) produce bills of purchase of pipes form reputed manufacturer
4) obtain AB from sessions court
1. He is using his influence to harass us and make us pay for the loss.
That is how these people will try to capitalise their loss.
If the police is insisting your personal appearance, you may visit the police station on any working day with your lawyer and the documents in your possession. The trader has nothing t do with the product getting damaged due to its wrong use by the buyer, so you can argue on that point and after that you pretend to come to some terms in a short period and get out of police statio for the present after which you can apply for anticipatory bail and then challenge his false case in the trial court.
2. Police wants us to travel 300 km and appear before them for no fault of ours.
You may decide about it judiciously because the question is not about the distance, it is about the crime reported against you.
Hi
Your defense should be on the following lines:
1) Since you are a trading firm, in the normal course of business, you will only supply material that the customer wants.
2) In the sense that you do not recommend the usage of products(rubber pipe) in lieu of Metal pipe as it is not in the nature of course of your business to sell your products on Design and Installation basis.
3) In accordance to law of contract, it is the responsibility of the buyer (Caveat Emptor), to be fully conscious of the product that he is intending to buy from you and put in to the correct use of the product. If the customer has put in to use the rubber pipe in place of metal pipe, then he is at fault for the fact that the customer though being fully aware that the metal pipe has to be used, has opted for a rubber pipe instead.
4) Also since you are a trading firm, you only buy and sell goods and it is the duty of the manufacturer(rubber pipe manufacturer) if at all there is any manufacturing defect in the rubber pipe.
5) From what you said, you or your firm will not be liable for the fault of your buyer and hence no worries.
6) Your case as stated by you, does not amount to cheating in any which way and does not constitute a criminal dispute.
7) From your statement, it is a purely civil dispute, actually police cannot question you and only the courts have the authority.
Next course of action:
Technically you do not need to appear in person at police station and instead you can ask a lawyer to represent you for and on behalf of you and your firm and can submit your statement in writing.
Hope this helps.
You should apply for and obtain anticipatory bail immediately as you may suffer arrest and detention on your appearance. Thereafter, you may apply quashing of FIR.
Dear All, thanks for the response... The allegation of the complainant is that Rubber pipe has worked in other cases (instead of metal pipe) and hence he purchased the same from us, he is finding fault with us for not assembling it properly (which is untrue) . I have below questions 1. How to quash FIR? How much time it takes and procedure. (Police didn't share FIR copy with us) 2. Getting anticipatory bail, time and process 3 getting a stay / time , Obtaining FIR copy ( We know FIR number from police notice ) 4 Best course of action before we are detained / harassed by police when we appear in PS.
1)quashing is done only in exceptional circumstances
2) obtain copy of FIR and file for AB
3) it may take a month
4) coperate in police investigations
1. The police will not give you copy of FIR. Since FIR has been registered, you may approach the concerned court office to get a copy through the sources of advocate, he will be able to get you a copy. The time taken for quashing FIR cannot be predicted, it may happen immediately or it may take an abnormal time which cannot be even guessed. For quashing FIR, it will depend on the advocate who you may engage to move on.
2. First you apply for anticipatory bail, the court will send notice to police for their reply/objection to the application and after hearing both the sides, the court may grant bail.
3. You first obtain anticipatory and regular bail and after that think of challenging their case in the court appropriately.
4, Once you are taking bail you will not be detained by court hence need not be worried about it.
Hi,
1) If you do not have the FIR copy your advocate can get the certified copy of the FIR from court or police station. This will take about 3 working days.
2)For filing a quash/stay/ bail petition (subject to availabilty of FIR) it will take 2 to 3 days max.
3) First police have to issue you notice under section 41A without which you cannot be arrested. If notice has already been issued, then suggest you hire a good lawyer who can respond to police and also move the high court for quash/stay/ bail at the same time.
Hope this helps
1. To have the FIR quashed you have to apply to the High Court. It takes months and sometimes even a year or two.
2. It takes around a week to two for the court to decide a petition for anticipatory bail. The procedure begins by engaging a lawyer. The FIR can be easily pulled out by your lawyer, so leave this to him.