Will Register FIRs Against Those Unauthorisedly Sub-Letting Property: DGP Informs Madras High Court

The Director General of Police has informed the Madras High Court that FIRs will be registered against persons who fraudulently sublet property without the authorisation or consent of the house owner and thus cheat the house owner and third parties. The submission was made before Justice AD Jagadish Chandira, who had asked the police authorities to bring in awareness about the issue. The DGP informed the court that circulars have been issued to register FIRs in such cases and to give utmost priority to such cases. “The complaints received in the police station given by house owners alleging that the tenant had handed over the property to third parties without their knowledge/consent should be strictly construed as a criminal offence and First Information Report (FIR) should be registered for appropriate sections immediately,” DGP informed the court. The DGP also informed the court that Deputy Commissioners of Police in cities and Superintendents of Police in Districts have been directed to monitor investigations in these cases and to conduct quarterly review meetings to review the progress in the investigation. The court was also informed that all unit officers have been directed to sensitise the public by posting awareness videos online. The court was told that for this purpose, an awareness video had also been made. The court noted the submissions and asked the video containing the alert message to be circulated in all social media and news channels so that it reaches the entire public and would deter them from falling prey to such fraudulent persons. “Further, this court feels that in the interest of public, the video clip containing the alert message has to reach the entire public in order to deter them from falling prey in the hands of fraudulent persons in future and thereby it has to be widely circulated and flashed in the new channels and social media,” the court said. The court was hearing a criminal miscellaneous petition filed by the State seeking to cancel the bail granted to a man accused of subletting a property unauthorisedly. The State submitted that the man had posed himself as a genuine business to get bail, who was lawfully entitled to sublet the premises. It was informed that though the court had granted bail based on an undertaking given by him, he had failed to comply with the same. During the course of the hearing, the court noted that it had come across several such cases where genuine house owners were being cheated by such fraudulent persons. This prompted the court to direct the Government Advocate to get details of cases with a similar modus operandi that were pending in the police stations within the jurisdiction of Greater Chennai, Avadi and Tambaram Commissionerate. The court was informed that 40 cases were pending in Chennai where 67 victims are affected, 342 victims in Tambaram, 20 victims in Avadi and many cases pending before the Economic Offences Wing in which there were 1020 victims were affected. The court was also told that the total amount cheated comes to nearly 65 crores. Noting that the public should be made aware of the modus operandi of the fraudsters, the court had directed the Government to make wide campaigns to prevent similar offences in the future. Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr. G. Gokul Counsel for the Respondent: Mr. S. Santhosh, Government Advocate (Crl. Side), Mr.Muthaizh Selvakumar Case Title: V Kanagaraj v. Inspector of Police Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 148 Case No: Crl.M.P.No.1322 of 2024 and Crl.O.P.No.7699 of 2023Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

Will Register FIRs Against Those Unauthorisedly Sub-Letting Property: DGP Informs Madras High Court

Upasana Sajeev

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