Dear Sir
My query relates to a case of fraud that dates back to 2002.
The case relates to an amount of 8 Lac that was given by my mother to a man who had promised to get admission to my sister in a private Medical college in the year 2002. This man posed as a former bank employee and gained our trust by visiting our home along with his own family that consisted of his wife and two children both of whom were of the same age as my sister and (according to him) seeking admission in Medical college. My own father had passed away a few years ago and my mother had a government job. I myself was still in school. Over a period of a few months we handed him the said amount and he got my sister admission in the said college. Since by this time he had established himself as a family friend we did not press him for receipts of the money we had handed him.
However within a few months my sister was informed by the college authorities that only a small portion of her fees had been paid and the rest was pending. When we confronted the man, he assured us that he would deposit the remaining amount in the college in a few days and there was no need to panic. However soon after he disappeared along with his wife and children. At this point my mother filed an FIR in the local police station. The local newspaper even carried a small news report in the matter. Due to the newspaper report, we found out that we were not the first victim of the man. A large number of families in the region had fallen prey to this man’s fraud. Three such families approached us after the newspaper report. They had the same story as ours but they had been afraid of filing an FIR fearing public embarrassment as they were doctors and professors themselves who had fallen prey to such a fraud and they were worried about what people would say. On our insistence they went ahead and filed FIRs against the man. Later a youth from a neighbouring village also approached us after reading our story in the paper. He had been duped by the same man, but this time on the false promise of getting him a job in the Army. The modus operandi of the man (and his family) was the same in each case – he would pose either as a former bank employee or former Army officer and win the trust of unsuspecting families looking for college admissions for their children or jobs in the army. He would then win their trust over a number of months by presenting himself as a cultured family man . Once he had the money, he would be gone without a trace. No receipts of payment were given in any case.
After we filed the FIR the police initiated proceedings but nothing happened. We then approached a private detective who traced him down to a nearby city. This time the man promised to return our money, and even returned some 10k on the spot to placate us but he managed to escape the very next day. Over the next few years we received inputs from the private detective on his whereabouts and tried to follow up but nothing came of it. After a while we just gave up on the chase and resigned ourselves to our mistake and got on with our lives.
However recently I have been able to trace the man down to his permanent address in a different city and a different state. My question is that if we were to approach the police and the courts now, is there any legal remedy available for us to recover our money, given that we have no receipts of the money we handed to him, even though the amount was quite large by the standards of those days?
Thanks and regards.
