One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: If the police are not registering FIR despite a cognizable offence being reported, you have three routes: escalate in writing to the Superintendent of Police, file a private complaint before the Magistrate, or move the High Court. Alongside that, never hand over disputed property privately. Hand it to the police against a written receipt, and never respond to a person claiming to be an officer without verifying them at the station.
The tenancy lasted one month. Karan Malhotra moved into a paying guest room in Jaipur's Vaishali Nagar in April 2025, paid ₹4,200 as rent and the same amount as security deposit, and moved out thirty days later. By early September, the deposit was still sitting with the owner, and calls from Karan and from his friend Sneha Rathore were going unanswered.
So Sneha went to the property herself. What happened next is one-sided, and it matters. An argument turned physical, both of them struck each other, the owner's phone ended up in Sneha's hands and left the premises with her, and a piece of Sneha's locket broke during the scuffle. That piece was worth around ₹11,000. Whether it is lying on the floor of that room or sitting with the owner, nobody knows.
Then the second problem arrived. Sneha's complaint at the local police station was not recorded. Days later, a caller claiming to be a police officer told her a complaint had been filed against her. The name and description given matched no officer posted at that station.
By then the owner was alleging that Sneha had walked off with a phone and a necklace. Sneha was worried about video footage and about her employer being contacted. The Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao took the refund claim and the criminal complaint forward in parallel rather than one after the other. The phone was handed over at the police station against a written acknowledgment, the necklace allegation was not pursued, and the deposit came back in full. Advocate Sudhir Rao's grounding in criminal procedure and in how Rajasthan police stations process complaints made the difference after the earlier attempts had gone nowhere.
Key Facts of the Case
- A one-month paying guest stay, with rent and an equal security deposit paid upfront.
- The deposit was not refunded for months, and the owner stopped responding to calls.
- The friend who went to collect it ended up in a physical altercation and left with the owner's phone.
- Both sides allege assault; the owner additionally alleges a necklace was taken, which is denied.
- The friend's complaint was not recorded at the police station.
- An unverified caller claiming to be a police officer contacted her about a complaint against her.
- Unedited call recordings and pre-argument videos exist and were preserved.
- The refund claim is civil in nature; the assault, intimidation and phone allegations are criminal. That is why the matter is mixed.
The Direct Legal Answer
The police are not registering her complaint. What now?
A refusal at the counter is not the end of the road. Write the complaint, send it to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173(4) BNSS, and keep the courier receipt or acknowledgment. If that produces nothing, a private complaint before the jurisdictional Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS is the next step. The Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari v. Government of UP (2014) held that registration of an FIR is mandatory when the information discloses a cognizable offence. There is no discretion to be exercised at that stage.
How should the phone be returned?
Not at the owner's gate, and not through a third person. Hand it to the police station handling the dispute, ask for a written receipt or acknowledgment listing the phone and its condition, and keep a photograph of that receipt. That single document closes off any later allegation that she kept it or damaged it. A direct return, with no witness and no paper, is how a small dispute turns into a theft allegation.
What can actually happen to her for entering the premises and for the fight?
Entering a premises during a dispute is not by itself a serious offence. The exposure comes from the physical altercation and from the phone. Assault or criminal force is punishable under Section 131 BNS, and voluntarily causing hurt under Section 115 BNS. If the phone is returned promptly and voluntarily, a theft allegation becomes very hard to sustain, because the intention to take it dishonestly is the ingredient that has to be proved.
How useful are the call recording and the videos?
Potentially significant, provided they are original and unedited. Keep the device, do not delete anything, and do not forward clips to groups. A video showing the owner without a necklace before the argument goes directly to the disputed allegation. Electronic records need a certificate to be relied on, so take the original device to the advocate, not a WhatsApp copy.
What if the video is posted online, or her employer is contacted?
Publishing footage to harass or humiliate someone can attract criminal intimidation and provisions relating to privacy, and platform takedown requests can be filed in parallel. Contacting an employer purely to cause her to lose her job is a separate act of harassment. Preserve screenshots with timestamps and URLs before anything is deleted and a dated log of who posted what, when, and on which platform. A takedown request sent while the record is still clean and the account is still up carries far more weight than one sent next month, after the post has been edited or the account deleted.
Could she be arrested over this?
That depends entirely on the section the police finally apply, and the injury note in any medical record. Assault and simple hurt, in the ordinary course, are bailable and compoundable. A theft allegation is not, and that is exactly why the phone should be returned at a police station against a receipt rather than kept while the argument continues. On a deposit dispute that turned into one scuffle, with injuries described as minor on both sides, custodial detention is not the natural first step. That is not a promise. If a complaint names theft of a phone and a necklace worth a combined figure, the station will treat it as a cognizable case and act on it.
Is the deposit a police matter at all?
No, and this is where a lot of people waste a month. Recovery of a security deposit is a civil claim. A police station will not register a criminal case over withheld rent money unless the facts show cheating from the beginning — a false promise to refund, a forged receipt, a landlord who takes deposits and vanishes. The practical route is a written demand with a clear deadline, then a suit for recovery of money before the civil judge having jurisdiction, or a consumer complaint if the arrangement was pitched as a service. The deposit claim and the criminal complaint run on separate tracks, on separate timelines, before different forums. Folded into one complaint, each weakens the other.
Is there a deadline she is running against?
Yes. A Magistrate cannot take cognizance of a private complaint after the limitation period set out in the BNSS has run from the date of the offence — one year where the offence is punishable with imprisonment up to one year, three years where the punishment is more than one year but not more than three. Assault and simple hurt fall into the shorter end of that. There are exceptions, including where the offender was not known earlier, but you cannot rely on them. This is the quiet reason a genuine grievance dies: the fight ends, the police do nothing, and by the time the person consults a lawyer the window has closed.
When the Police Are Not Registering FIR, What Happens Next, Step by Step
In sequence, this is the chain and roughly what each link costs you in time.
Step 1 — Put the complaint in writing and hand it over at the station
Written, dated, signed, with your contact number. Ask for the receipt stamp or the daily diary entry number on your copy, and note the name and designation of the officer who took it. If the officer refuses to take it, note the refusal, the time and the name — that note becomes evidence later.
Step 2 — Escalate in writing to the Superintendent of Police
Send the same substance in writing by registered post or courier, and keep the postal receipt and the tracking printout. This is a single-page letter, not an essay. It creates the paper trail that Step 3 depends on.
Step 3 — Private complaint before the jurisdictional Magistrate
Filed with the complaint, the SP letter, the postal proof, and any documents supporting your version. The Magistrate examines you on oath, and can either dismiss the complaint or direct an investigation. This stage is where a badly drafted complaint gets dismissed, so the documents should be in order before you file.
Step 4 — Application before the High Court
Available where the statutory route has been exhausted or where the delay defeats the purpose. It is the slowest option and the last one, not the first. Filing it before Steps 1 and 2 leaves you with nothing to show on the affidavit.
Running alongside — what you must not get wrong
- Hand over disputed property at a police station, against a written acknowledgment that describes the item and its condition. Photograph the receipt the same day.
- Do not delete anything. Original recordings and videos stay on the original device.
- Do not respond to a caller claiming to be a police officer until you have verified the number yourself from the station's landline. Any genuine summons arrives in writing.
- Keep the deposit claim moving separately through the civil forum. Do not wait for the criminal case to finish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the police simply refuse to register my FIR?
They should not, when the information discloses a cognizable offence. Registration at that stage is mandatory, not a matter of discretion. What happens in practice is that the counter talks you out of it, or writes it up as a non-cognizable entry. Your remedy is in writing, upstairs, and then before the Magistrate.
Can I file at a police station that does not cover the area where it happened?
Yes. Information about a cognizable offence committed elsewhere should be recorded and then transferred to the station that has jurisdiction over the place of the offence. That is the practice people call a zero FIR. Insist only on the information being recorded and a copy being given to you; the transfer is the police's problem, not yours.
What if the other side files a counter-complaint against me?
Assume they will, especially after you escalate. Keep every document that contradicts their version — the rental agreement, the payment proof, the chats where the refund was promised, the videos from before the argument started. A counter-complaint is answered with documents and a clean record of your own conduct, not with a louder version of events.
How long does a private complaint before the Magistrate take?
The filing itself is quick. The first hearing where you are examined on oath usually comes within weeks in a busy district court, but the direction to investigate or the summons to the accused can take months, and the trial after that longer still. Anyone who tells you a timeline in advance is guessing.
Can these cases be settled?
Some, yes. Compoundable offences can be compromised with the court's permission, and that is often the sensible end to a scuffle over a deposit. Offences that are not compoundable cannot be bought off, and any suggestion otherwise is worth checking with your own advocate before money changes hands.
Will the police contact my employer?
They have no business doing so over a private dispute, and if a private party is doing it to pressure you, preserve the messages and treat it as a separate complaint. Tell your employer nothing in advance; a short factual sentence later is easier to live with than a panicked email now.
What To Send Before You Write In
You do not need a prepared brief. You need the paper.
- Your written complaint, exactly as it was given to the police, and the date it was given.
- The receipt, diary entry number, or refusal note. A photograph of the stamp is enough.
- The SP escalation letter with the postal receipt, if you have already sent one.
- Rental agreement, payment proof, and the chats or call recordings where the refund was discussed.
- Any video or recording of the incident, on the original device.
- A two-line note in your own words on what you want — the money back, the complaint registered, or both.
Write to me@sudhirrao.com or use the contact page, and if it is urgent, book a slot. The chamber sits at Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi 110001, phone +91 97295 06771. On some of these facts there may be nothing worth arguing — a fight where both sides struck each other and a phone that has already been handed back does not always deserve a criminal case, and it is better to hear that in the first conversation than after three hearings.
This is general information about Indian law, not legal advice on your own situation. Please have your documents read before acting on any of it.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India
Facing a similar matter? Speak to a criminal lawyer in Delhi — Advocate Sudhir Rao appears in bail, trial and appellate matters before the Delhi District Courts, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.