Comments for Post #C27797

Our neighbor borrowed our life savings and refuses to pay us back

Hello everyone, I never thought I would share my family's pain publicly, but today I have no other option. I am posting this with the hope that someone can guide us or help us. A few years ago, my mother lent ₹6 lakh to a person we trusted. It was not given all at once. At first, he asked for money to buy a Tata Ace vehicle. He was our neighbour, everyone knew his family, and he already had a Tata Ace, so my mother trusted him. The money was given on interest, and for the first few months he paid the interest regularly. Because of that, my mother believed he was honest. Later, he slowly started asking for more money. He said he needed money for himself, then for his driver, and later for his uncle. Every time he gave a different reason, and my mother continued to trust him. I did not know about this loan when it started. I came to know about it only at the end of 2021. After I found out, I asked him to give us a written bond because I did not want to depend only on verbal promises. Only after I insisted did he sign the bond. In 2022, during my sister's marriage, I again asked my mother about the money. She told me not to worry because she trusted him and believed he would return everything. Because of this family stress, I could not concentrate on my engineering studies and I got arrears in three papers. My mother kept telling me that he was sending ₹7,000 every month, so I believed the loan was being repaid. But in 2024, my mother and I went to the bank. I checked her account myself and found that the money was not being credited regularly as I had believed. When I questioned the borrower, I came to know that part of our money had been given to his driver and another part to his uncle. I even went to his uncle's village and spoke to him directly. His uncle told me that he had already returned the money to the borrower. During a phone conversation, the borrower admitted that he had not returned the full amount to our family. After that, he promised to pay ₹15,000 every month. But every month we had to ask him again and again. Some months he paid, and some months he paid nothing. In total, he has returned only about ₹1.7 lakh, and ₹4.3 lakh is still pending. For the last five years, all of my family's jewellery has been pledged in the bank. Every month my mother struggles to pay the interest on the gold loan. Even today, I am paying my sister's jewellery loan and supporting my family with my salary. For the last three years, my mother and I have argued almost every day because of this issue. I wanted to take legal action earlier, but my mother kept trusting him and giving him more chances. Finally, when my mother started receiving threatening phone calls, we approached the police station. In front of the police, he gave a written statement promising to pay ₹50,000 after three months, and we also signed a letter agreeing to wait during that period. We trusted him once again. After three months, instead of paying, he asked for another 10 days. After those 10 days, he asked for one more month. We went back to the police station, but we did not receive proper help. My mother returned home completely heartbroken. From 2018 onwards, I worked 12-hour shifts every day, and on many weekly holidays I even worked 20 hours to earn more money for my family. Every rupee was earned through hard work by my mother, my sister, and me. Today, our hard-earned money is still stuck, our family is in debt, and we are suffering mentally every day. I am currently working in Gujarat only to support my family, while my mother is alone in Tamil Nadu carrying all this stress. Watching her suffer has deeply affected me too. If any police officer, lawyer, social worker, or kind-hearted person reading this, I humbly request your guidance and help. We are not asking for sympathy or revenge. We only want justice through the proper legal process and help in recovering our family's hard-earned money. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Any advice or support would mean a lot to my family.