Panchkula: Advocate booked for duping Colonel of ₹4.82 lakh
The advocate claimed that he had secured a verdict in the Colonel’s favour, when in fact the case had been closed in 2015 after no lawyer appeared for the petitioner in a case that was being heard at the Armed Force Tribunal, over the years the advocate took around ₹4.82 lakh from the complainant
An advocate was booked for allegedly duping a Colonel stationed at Chandimandir of ₹4.82 lakh.
The complainant, Manish Dhanda, who is at present posted at the Western Command Headquarters at Chandimandir, stated that he had filed a representation regarding an ‘annual confidential report’ (ACR) at the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), New Delhi, in 2010. Subsequently, he was posted to Ranchi, Jharkhand, after which his case was transferred to Kolkata. In March 2012, he engaged Mayukh Maitra, who presented himself as an advocate practising at AFT, Kolkata, to represent his case regarding the 1999 ACR, which had affected his selection for the rank of selection-grade Colonel in 2010. Dhanda paid an initial amount of ₹12,500 to Maitra, who later claimed that the AFT judgment had been delivered in Dhanda’s favor. However, Maitra allegedly sought payments under a variety of pretexts as legal charges from November 6, 2022 to February 15, 2023, amounting to ₹4.82 lakh, all of which was transferred through Google Pay.
Despite repeated requests, Maitra did not provide Dhanda with the AFT judgment and kept making excuses. As per the complaint, Maitra informed Dhanda that the Army had transferred the cost of litigation, including a fine of ₹5,54,000, to Maitra’s account, but he did not transfer this amount to Dhanda.
Upon checking with the AFT Dhanda discovered that his case had been closed in May 2015 as no counsel appeared for him. When he enquired with the Eastern Command litigation branch on March 4, 2023, he was informed that no such case was listed and no judgment had been passed in his favour as claimed by Mayukh Maitra. Documents received from the Eastern Command litigation branch confirmed that no lawyer appeared in Dhanda’s case, no judgment had been passed, and no payments had been made to Maitra’s account.
After taking legal opinion, the cops registered a case against the advocate under Section 420 (cheating) at the Sector 5 police station in Panchkula.
