Maruti Suzuki — Unauthorised holding of money, without sale of a car

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal

1. On 30.12.2014 Ms. Tanushree Mukherjee, Sales Representative of M/s. Dewar’sGarage Ltd., authorised dealer of Maruti, visited our office in relation tosale of Celerio zxi. We confirmed our booking of the said car model in the nameof our company M/s ARS Management Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. for an on-roadprice of Rs. 5, 07, 682/-. 2. She assured us that their company can help us in getting an autoloan from HDFC Bank amounting to Rs. 4, 00, 000/-. Accordingly the balance amountof Rs. 1, 09, 214/- (including HDFCBank processing fees of Rs. 1, 532/-) was paid by us instantly on 30/12/2014vide cheque no. 099212 dated 30.12.14 drawn on IDBI Bank, Brabourn Road, Kolkata branch. 3. On the same day, we submitted all the documents as required by her in respect of purchase of the car and financefrom the bank. No acknowledgement is however given to us. 4. On 31.12.14 suddenly wereceived a phone call from her thatour loan has been rejected by HDFCBank, as ours is a ‘money market company’according to them. Unfortunately we did not receive any official communicationin this regard until 08.01.15. Neither a receipt of the loan application fromthe bank, nor an intimation regarding rejection of the car loan. 5. On 31.12.14 the cheque was encashed by them, andcleared from our bank on 05.01.15. 6. On 07.01.15, we wrote aletter to Mr Soumen Dey, Sales Manager of Dewar’s, requesting to kindly clarify the matter regardingfinance as well as delivery of the car immediately. We confirmed that without abank loan, we were never interested to buy the car. We also confirmed that ourcompany is engaged in management consultancy services to various corporatehouses in this part of the country. 7. On 16.01.15 we calledMr Soumen Dey, asking why they should holdour money of Rs. 1, 09, 214/- withoutany authority, as they failed to get us the loan from the bank. He assuredto get back to us by the next day (i.e. 17.01.15)regarding the refund of the amount. However, Mr Dey never bothered to call usagain. 8. On 20.01.15 we wrote to the director (K A: Mr Sudhir Jhunjhunwala) bringing to his notice the fact of ourmoney being held up without any authority for last twenty days, withoutbothering to update us in this regard. 9. We requested thedirector to please return all thedocuments submitted by us, and our money, Rs. 1, 09, 214/- along with interest, immediately to our bank account directly under intimation to us. The details ofour bank account for transferring the amount was also given by us. However, wedid not receive any communication from the office of the director till date. 10. On 23.01.15we sent a mail again to the SalesManager (addressed to Mr Soumen Dey) of M/s. Dewar’s Garage at their e-mail id‘[protected]@dewarsgarage.com’, requestingto please return all the documents submitted by us, and our money, Rs.1, 09, 214/- along with interest, immediately. The details of our bank account wasagain given by us. However, we never received any official communication fromthem till date, even after repeated phone calls from our office. 11. On 23.01.15we even visited the Taratala showroom of Dewar’s, and met Mr Soumen Dey, MsTanushree and their Team Leader(probably Ms Munmun Bhattacharya). We were again assured to get the refundamount immediately. There after, we followed up the matter with them manytimes, without any result till date. 12. The celerio zxi car is finally purchasedby us in the name of our another firm ‘K N Jain & Co.’, vide Invoice dated 14.01.15. The entire team was veryeager to sell us the new car, but none of them is interested to listen to ourissue of refund of the amount held by them without any authority. The facts and circumstances as stated above, give us every reason tobelieve that the company has an intention not to refund the amount. It hasresulted into a severe anxiety and agony, and mental harassment to us, being afirm engaged in rendering professional services in the area of financial andtaxation management systems. The company should therefore be made liable to refund us the amountimmediately, with interest and an appropriate pecuniary compensation to partlyoffset our harassment, waste of time & energy.