Madurai: The Madras High Court Bench here has set aside a FIR registered against three persons under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act 2002 and for cheating.
Justice A Selvam said the complaint, lodged by a woman, did not inspire the confidence of the court. The complainant, by filing the case after nine years, was abusing the process of law by forcing three to undergo the rigour of trial.
The judge agreed with the petitioners` counsel that the complainant, if really aggrieved, would not have got the case registered in 2011 with regard to a mortgage made in 2002.He pointed out that the complaint ran contrary to her averments in a civil suit.
According to the complaint, the woman had borrowed Rs 50,000 from one of the petitioners for interest at the rate of 5 per cent per month from March 2002. Then, she executed a registered mortgage deed with respect to her coconut grove towards security. She claimed she had repaid the loan in the same year.
On Dec12, 2002, the lenders took her to the Sub-Registrar’s office and got a sale deed executed in their favour in the guise of executing a mortgage cancellation deed.
The complainant supposedly came to know about the fact only in 2007 when she was prevented by the lender from collecting the coconuts from her grove. Thereafter, she filed a civil suit in 2007 and a police complaint in 2008.
The three had then moved the court.
PTI
