Siva (Consultant) 20 July 2010

Blackmail Threat u/s 138 Act

Hi,

Assume that there are 2 parties; the 1^st party being ‘A’ and the 2^nd Party being ‘B’.

‘A’ promised ‘B’ that he would get some amount as loan for ‘B’ from a known source, which helps ‘B’ to start his business. Thus, ‘A’ acted as an Agent / Mediator for ‘B’. But without executing any Agreement / Promissory note, ‘A’ asked the ‘B’ to issue some post-dated cheques without notifying anything on the cheques. In the matter of trust, ‘B’ issued 5 cheques by signing on it but without notifying anything like ‘date or payee name’ to ‘A’.

This was happened 2 years back but till now ‘A’ didn’t get any money for ‘B’ to run his business. So, the frustrated ‘B’ closed the Bank Account since he thought that why to maintain that account unnecessarily without doing any operation and handed over the whole cheque book (except that 5 cheques issued to ‘A’), pass book and all required documents to the Bank Manager. But the Bank Manager asked those 5 cheques as well. So, ‘B’ asked ‘A’ to give back all his cheques and said that he would have return all the cheques to the Bank as advised by the Manager.

But ‘A’ is demanding a big amount from ‘B’ to return the cheques, having said that ‘A’ tried to get some money for ‘B’ but he couldn’t able to do it but he had spent a huge amount of money while he tried for that. The amount that he denoted is much high from the actual which is not even acceptable by anyone. Also now, ‘A’ started blackmailing ‘B’ that he will post the cheques for clearance if ‘B’ is not agreed to give the demanded amount and file a case u/s 138, however, without giving any money for ‘B’. At this time, ‘B’ is very much worried and understood that he got trapped, without any cause. Now, by this event, we might have predicted that ‘A’ had breached the TRUST and do blackmail ‘B’ for the sake of money.

Hence, please let us know shall ‘B’ lodge a complaint against ‘A’ to the local police station by explaining the above said circumstances? If so, on what grounds / sections that we can file this case? Else, it may be problem if the same may turn around to ‘B’ as well?

So, kindly advise us how to handle this situation better and make ease the process to escape the innocent ‘B’ from the culprit ‘A’.

Hope you can do the needful for ‘B’. Thanks!

Reply Follow

2 Replies

adv. rajeev ( rajoo ) (practicing advocate) 20 July 2010

B will have to issue legal notice to A to return the blank cheques which were given to him within short period and also instruct him to not to present the cheque for collction.

Intimate the bank manager to stop payment and inform the same to to A .

If A failed to return the cheque within the time given B will have to file a criminal case aginst the A.

Siva (Consultant) 20 July 2010

Dear Adv. Rajeev,

Thanks a lot for your immediate respond!

'B' already had given instruction for 'Stop Payment'. Further, 'B' given a detailed letter and mentioned that 'B' had misplaced the blank cheques somewhere which was duly signed by him and where he couldn't able to find those cheques anywhere. Also, this has been accepted by the Bank Manager and agreed to stop payment of cheques if anything entered for encashment.

But ‘B’ never mentioned that he had given blank cheques to ‘A’ because he thought that the Bank Manager won’t accept his request for account closure if he tells about aforesaid facts. His intension is not to hide any aforesaid issues but wrongly thought that it may be problematic for himself and don’t know how to deal with this matter because of some anxiety that ‘A’ might file a lawsuit against him since ‘A’ threatened ‘B’ like that. So, naturally, he got frightened. However, ‘B’ closed the account now and the 'Stop Payment' instruction has been accepted by Branch Manager. Additionally, the BM advised ‘B’ to give a petition about the loss of blank cheques to the local police station.

As per BM’s advice, ‘B’ approached the local police station and given a petition that the blank cheques might be lost somewhere or stolen by someone. Also, ‘B’ enclosed the letter about his intimation to Bank and which was accepted by BM too. But, the Police Inspector making delay to file this case unwontedly and handling ‘B’ in a doubtful manner. Also, ‘B’ in a sticky situation that he couldn’t able to reveal the incidents about what really happened to ‘B’ because he is thinking that the problem might turn around to him if anyone knows about the cheque issuance to ‘A’. So, ‘A’ takes this as an advantage to him and tries to defraud ‘B’.

Suppose, if ‘A’ drops the cheques for encashment, what would be the reaction then? In this critical situation, what would be ‘B’s next move? Kindly advise ‘B’ for a best feasible legal solution on this matter.