Hi. I am a small business owner from Kolkata. More than two years back I borrowed 50,000 rupees from one of my friend, in cash. There was no paperworks related to that dealings. I just handed him a hand-written receipt for 50,000 in cash.
As I was borrowing the money for my business, his terms were I will have to pay him 5000 per month untill I can pay the full 50,000 back. He wanted to treat it like an investment. I agreed. Again, there was no paper drawn in this regards, although there was a talk of drawing such paper and we even shared some e-mails regarding what will be the terms and conditions in case any paper is drawn. I paid 5000 for few months. As I realized in this rate it would be very difficult to pay him the full money back anytime soon and I will be paying a lot of cash for no good reason, I skipped on my payment of 5000 per month and paid him the money back full in cash.
The whole thing started in June, 2013 and it was ended by January, 2014. I do not remember exact dates as the whole dealings was in cash and I did not think I would need to worry about this future. As there was much bitterness formed between us till that time, I blocked his email id from my own and we were not in touch.
Before two days I received a mail from a different mail id asking me for money. There was no mention of who is writing the mail to whom. No names at all. But from the tone of writing and the mention of 50,000 rupees I could easily guess it is the same guy. Also the resemblence of email ids were a big help. He is threatening me that he needs 50,000 cash for some reason now and he is claiming in the mail that I never gave him his money back.
I am not sure if he has any evidentiary proof to support his claim or not, as there was never any paperwork involved other than that one hand-written receipt of 50,000 in cash as I mentioned earlier.
Now my question is,
1. Based on that one hand-written receipt can he take any legal action against me? I would like to mention that there was no clear mention of the ground for which he is paying 50,000 in cash. It was a simple receipt. But he has some emails mentioning out dealings.
2. In case he can take a legal step, what can I do to prove my innocence. As I paid the guy in cash and he did not provide me with even a handwritten receipt.
I can understand it is a foolish ground and most probably there is no reason to worry but I just want to be sure. Also, I do not want to feel threatened. Kindly help.
