Cheated by a civil contractor
RK
(Querist) 13 June 2011
This query is : Resolved
Hi,
Please help me out with this case. myself and my fathers hard earned money is at stake.
I am based in mumbai and brought a house some time back in navi mumbai, and it was given on lease. I planned to move in last month and so i decided to renovate it. a friend of our's introduced us to a civil contractor and after giving his quote , we decided to hire him for the job. we gave him rs 50,000 as advance, but even after a week, other than false promises of this and that there was no visible progress. to top it all, he didn't seem qualified to do such task. but he sweet talked us into believing he was doing his task. he again took another 20,000 from us for buying some materials.
last week, my patience ran out and when we questioned him left and right about
no progress inspite of huge money paid upfront, he feigned ignorance and said labourers were not proper and would replace them.
That was the last time we saw him. he is neither picking up his phone, his workers have not been paid, his address turned out fake and the family friend now supports him. i am in a state of utter dismay and shock. imagine losing your hard earned money due to such a crook. though there was no agreement paper, all amount paid has been signed by the contractor and a seperate sheet maintained. also he has not paid dues to many nearby shops from where he used to order materials. even they are furious. now it has come to my knowledge from the shop keepers that he has similarly cheated many parties in navi mumbai and mumbai.
Please do suggest what can i do. i am losing my sleep over this issue and the tension in the family is also high. if i lay my hands on him, he will be history, but need to find a legal solution. need to ensure he never repeats this with someone else.
Awaiting your reply.
Advocate Bhartesh goyal
(Expert) 13 June 2011
Beside filing consumer case,you should also lodge F.I.R against contractor.
R.Ramachandran
(Expert) 13 June 2011
Yes, you should first lodge a FIR against the contractor.
