Anonymous 22 January 2021

Movers were illegally detained for 7 hours by the property m

Hi, I'm an American living in India and recently faced illegal harassment from the property management at my apartment as I was moving out. It's a gated high-rise apartment community in Gurgaon, and as we were leaving, the property management illegally detained the movers and packers and refused to let them leave the property. They claimed they needed an email from the apartment owner, which is surprising as I had informed him that I was leaving. Either way, they refused to let the mover guys leave and illegally detained them inside the property for 7 hours. I'm pretty sure that only a police officer can legally detain someone, so the property management office at that place committed a felony. What would you advise me to do in this situation?

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Nandini Warrier 22 January 2021

Good evening,

If a private person has illegally detained people for a considerable amount of time, it will be considered as deprivation of their liberty, and it is a violation of Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which talks about the fundamental right to life and personal liberty. The remedy for such a violation can be found under Article 226 of the Indian constitution, which talks about issuance of writs (all types of writs, such as habeas corpus, prohibition, mandamus, more).

Under Section 43 of Criminal Procedure Code, any private person has the authority to arrest an individual without a warrant ONLY under circumstances where the person has been subsequently declared to be an offender under Section 82 CrPC or when a person is said to commit a non-bailable or cognizable offence in their presence.

The case of verbal harassment can also looked into, as it is a violation of Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code, which talks about intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, and it is punishable by described term of imprisonment.

Please approach the police authorities of the area, and also consult your lawyer for more advice~

Hope this helped!

Regards,

Nandini

Anonymous 23 January 2021

Thanks Nandini, the problem is that I have left Delhi and moved to a city a few hours away. Is there a process where a police complaint can be filed online? Or my lawyer in Delhi could file a legal case, police case, on my behalf without me being physically present in Delhi?