When and How to File an FIR Against a Builder Who Cheats You

You can file an FIR (a First Information Report, the written record that starts a police investigation) against a developer only when the facts show a genuine crime, not merely a broken promise. In most Mumbai redevelopment disputes the right forum is MahaRERA or a consumer or civil court, because a delay, a funding gap or an argument over area is a civil wrong. It crosses into criminal territory when there is dishonesty from the start, or when money and property lawfully handed to the builder are misused. In law that means cheating under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, or criminal breach of trust under Section 316, the provisions that replaced the old Sections 420 and 406 of the Indian Penal Code. The procedure itself now sits in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure: Section 173(1) is the provision under which an FIR is registered, Section 173(4) is your remedy if the station refuses, and Section 175(3) is the application to the Magistrate after that.

This guide gives you the five things a committee actually needs: which section your facts fall under, what the complaint must state ingredient by ingredient with the wording to copy, the two calculations that turn a grievance into an offence, which annexures to attach and where to get each one, and the escalation ladder — who to address at each rung, and the dates to diarise — if the police will not register it. It also sets out the parallel money remedies, because an FIR by itself never returns a rupee.

First, is it a crime or a civil dispute?

This is the single most important question, and getting it right protects your society from wasting time at the wrong door. A civil dispute is about enforcing your agreement: getting the flat built, the money refunded, or interest paid for delay. A crime is about dishonesty: the builder deceived you deliberately, or diverted what was entrusted to them. The same delay can be purely civil in one society and criminal in another, and the difference lies entirely in intention and conduct, not in how upset the members feel.

A helpful test is to ask when the dishonesty began. If a developer never intended to deliver and used false figures only to win your consent, that points to cheating. If the developer took your money or building lawfully and then misused it, that points to criminal breach of trust. If it is simply a project that ran into honest trouble, it is a civil matter for MahaRERA. Our guide on what to do when a builder delays your project walks through the civil options in detail.

The two offences that matter most

Two sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, cover almost every dishonest redevelopment situation. It is worth understanding the difference, because they cannot both be alleged on the same set of facts.

• Cheating — Section 318 BNS (its sub-section 318(4) is the direct successor to the old Section 420 IPC). This applies when the builder was dishonest from the outset — deceiving your society into parting with consent, possession or money by promises they never meant to keep. The key ingredient is dishonest intention present at the very start. Section 318(4) is punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, and fine.
• Criminal breach of trust — Section 316 BNS (formerly Section 406 IPC). This applies when property or money was handed over lawfully and honestly, and the builder then misused or diverted it — for example, using your corpus, rent or sale proceeds for a different project. The basic offence under Section 316(2) carries up to five years. Where the entrustment was to someone acting as an agent or attorney — which is what a developer holding the society's registered Power of Attorney is arguing about — Section 316(5) carries up to ten years or imprisonment for life. If your society executed a Power of Attorney in the developer's favour, say so expressly in the complaint and annex it, because that fact decides which sub-section is in play.

Cheating requires dishonest intention at the moment the society was induced; criminal breach of trust requires a lawful entrustment followed by dishonest misappropriation. Those ingredients pull in opposite directions on the same transaction, so do not label one payment as both. But a redevelopment usually has several transactions, and different ones can attract different sections — the false carpet-area promise that won consent may be cheating, while the diverted rent paid two years later may be criminal breach of trust. Set out each transaction separately with its own date and amount. Forgery and criminal conspiracy are separate offences that often accompany these where signatures or consent letters are fabricated. Both cheating and criminal breach of trust are cognizable offences, meaning the police may register an FIR and investigate without a court's prior permission. For more, see our note on builder cheating as a criminal matter.

Section picker: match your facts to the provision

Find the row that describes what actually happened in your society. The section in the second column is what you ask the station to register, and the last column is the fact your complaint must prove for that section to hold. If none of these rows fits, you probably have a civil dispute, not a crime.

Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Name the facts in your complaint and leave the section to the police — but knowing which section your facts reach tells you whether a preliminary enquiry is even available (see below), and that is worth knowing before you walk into the station.

Warning signs that conduct may be criminal, not just civil

Recognising dishonesty early is the best protection of all. The table below links common warning signs to what they may indicate and the sensible, on-paper response. None of these signs on its own proves a crime, but several together are a reason to take advice and preserve records.

When should your society actually go to the police?

Go to the police when the conduct clears a real threshold of dishonesty and you can show it on paper. Reasonable triggers include: money or possession taken and then the project abandoned; corpus or rent openly diverted to another site; the same flat sold or mortgaged twice; forged signatures or fabricated consent; or promises that the record shows the builder never intended to keep. If instead the builder is genuinely trying but is late or short of funds, that is a civil and RERA matter, and rushing to the police rarely helps. When you are unsure which door to use, our note on which forum hears a redevelopment dispute is a useful starting point.

What your complaint must state, paragraph by paragraph

Most society complaints fail not because the facts are weak but because they read as a grievance rather than as an offence. A police officer must be able to see each statutory ingredient on the page. Use these eleven paragraphs, numbered, on society letterhead, signed by the authorised office-bearers, with annexures lettered A onwards.

1. Who is complaining and under what authority. Society name, registration number, address, and the managing committee resolution number and date authorising you. Annex the certified true copy.
2. Who is accused. The developer's full legal name, the firm or company name with its CIN or registration number, the registered office address, and the names of the partners or directors you say acted. A company cannot be arrested; name the individuals.
3. The representation. The exact words or figures promised — carpet area, corpus, rent, timeline — with the date, the meeting or document they appear in, and who said them. Quote, do not paraphrase.
4. What the society parted with in reliance on it. Consent, possession of the building, the Power of Attorney, money. Give dates and amounts for each.
5. What was entrusted, when, how much, and for what purpose. This paragraph carries Section 316. Corpus of a stated amount, paid on a stated date, to be held for a stated purpose.
6. Where the money actually went. Bank entries, cheque returns, payments to an unrelated account, or the developer's own admissions.
7. The facts showing the intention was dishonest at the time. This paragraph carries Section 318 and is the one usually missing. Point to what the developer knew and concealed — no sanctioned plan, no MahaRERA registration, an existing default at another site, a mortgage already created over the plot.
8. Any forgery. Which document, whose signature, and the genuine specimen you can produce for comparison.
9. Loss. Total money paid, months of rent unpaid, number of members displaced, and how long they have been out of their homes.
10. The offences disclosed. Name the sections plainly: cheating under BNS Section 318, criminal breach of trust under Section 316, and forgery under Section 336 or 338 where it applies.
11. The prayer. Ask, in those words, that the complaint be registered as an FIR under Section 173(1) of the BNSS, 2023, and that a copy be furnished under Section 173(2). Add one sentence noting that the complaint discloses an offence under BNS Section 318(4), punishable with seven years, and therefore falls outside the three-to-under-seven-year band in Section 173(3) BNSS.

Put a number on it: two calculations the complaint must carry

A complaint that says the builder cheated the society reads as a grievance. A complaint that states a figure, and shows on the page how the figure was arrived at, reads as an offence. Two calculations do most of that work — one for cheating, one for criminal breach of trust.

State the rate and annex the document it comes from. Never put a rate in a police complaint that you cannot produce a paper for — the figure is the first thing the investigating officer will test.

Before you allege cheating on that shortfall, run one check. Confirm both figures are on the same measurement basis. Under Section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, carpet area is the net usable floor area, including the internal partition walls, and excluding the external walls, the areas under service shafts, the exclusive balcony or verandah and the exclusive open terrace. If the 750 was quoted as built-up or saleable and the 675 is RERA carpet, the difference is a change of unit, not a lie, and an FIR built on it will fail. If both documents say “carpet” and the number still moved, that is exactly the representation your paragraph 3 is about.

The second calculation is the money. Where members paid the developer directly — most often for carpet area bought over entitlement — the money was handed over for a stated purpose, which is the entrustment Section 316 BNS needs. RERA then tells you where that money was legally obliged to sit, and which certificate should exist for every rupee taken out.

Withdrawals from the project account are lawful only in proportion to the percentage of completion, and only after certification by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant in practice. So list every withdrawal you question by date and by amount, and ask MahaRERA and the police for the three certificates that should exist against each. A withdrawal with no certificate behind it is exactly what paragraph 6 of your complaint needs.

Source: Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — s.2(k) (carpet area), s.4(2)(l)(D) and its provisos (70% separate account; withdrawal in proportion to completion on the certificates of an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant in practice), s.13(1) (no advance above 10% of the cost of the apartment without a registered agreement for sale). Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, ss.316 and 318. The 750 / 675 sq ft, 40 members, Rs 25,000 per sq ft and Rs 18,00,000 figures are illustrative — substitute your own and keep the arithmetic visible.

The annexures: what to attach and where to get each one

Attach copies, never originals. Where the document is a registered one, obtain a certified copy from the Sub-Registrar — a certified copy carries far more weight with an investigating officer than a photocopy of the society's own file copy.

Source: Registration Act, 1908, s.57 (right to obtain certified copies of registered documents). Registration of the Development Agreement and PAAA is itself compulsory under s.17(1).

How to file: the BNSS route, step by step

1. Pass and minute the resolution. A managing committee resolution is enough to authorise a criminal complaint; ratify it at the next general body meeting. Record the resolution number, the date, the names authorised and the exact authority given, including authority to swear an affidavit. An individual member personally cheated may also complain in their own name.
2. Go to the police station with territorial jurisdiction — the station covering the society or the project — and ask, in writing, for registration under Section 173(1) BNSS. Section 173(1) allows information about a cognizable offence to be given irrespective of the area where the offence is committed, which is the Zero FIR provision, so a station cannot turn you away on jurisdiction alone.
3. If you send it electronically, remember Section 173(1)(ii): information given by electronic communication is taken on record only if you sign it within three days. An e-mailed complaint that nobody goes and signs simply does not exist on the record.
4. Collect the copy. Section 173(2) BNSS requires a copy of the recorded information to be given to the informant or victim forthwith and free of cost. Note the FIR number, the sections applied, the date, and the investigating officer's name and rank.
5. If you are told an enquiry must happen first, check whether Section 173(3) BNSS actually applies. It permits a preliminary enquiry, only with the prior permission of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, only where the offence is punishable with three years or more but less than seven years, and only within fourteen days. Ask which officer gave permission and on what date, and put the fourteen-day limit in writing.
6. If registration is refused, use Section 173(4) BNSS. Send the substance of the information in writing and by post to the Superintendent of Police — in Greater Mumbai, the Commissioner of Police — with a copy to the Deputy Commissioner of Police for the zone. Send it by registered post or speed post and keep the receipt and the tracking printout. Do not hand-deliver only: the section says "by post", and the postal receipt is your proof of date.
7. If that also fails, apply to the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS. The application must be supported by an affidavit and must show that you first went the Section 173(4) route, so annex that letter and the postal receipt. The Magistrate will also hear the police officer before ordering an investigation, which is why the file you build at steps 2 and 6 matters.
8. The alternative is a private complaint under Section 223 BNSS, on which the Magistrate examines the complainant on oath. Note the proviso: no cognizance is taken without giving the accused an opportunity of being heard. It is slower than an FIR and puts the burden of leading evidence on the society, so treat it as a fallback rather than a first move.
9. Diarise ninety days. Section 193(3) BNSS requires the police to inform the informant or victim of the progress of the investigation within ninety days, by any means including electronic communication. Enter the date in the society's diary the day the FIR is registered.

Source: Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 — ss.173(1), 173(2), 173(3), 173(4), 175(3), 193(3), 223. The fortnight allowed between the 173(4) letter and the 175(3) application is a practical interval, not a statutory one; the statute sets no fixed period there.

Who exactly you address at each rung

Address the office, never a personal name, and keep proof of service at every rung — the file you build is what the Magistrate reads later. In Greater Mumbai the “Superintendent of Police” named in Section 173(4) is the Commissioner of Police.

The clocks to enter in the minute book on day one

Six of these run on statute. Write them into the minute book the day you file, with the actual calendar dates worked out, so no one has to remember them later.

When the Economic Offences Wing comes in

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is a unit of the Crime Branch, Mumbai Police, that investigates large-value cheating and criminal breach of trust. Societies often assume they can walk into the EOW instead of the local station. In practice that is not how it works.

• Register the FIR first, at the station with territorial jurisdiction, under BNSS Section 173(1). Territorial jurisdiction decides where the FIR is recorded.
• Then write to the Joint Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai Police, enclosing the registered FIR and your complaint, and ask for the investigation to be transferred to the EOW.
• Give the two figures that decide it: the total amount involved across all members, and the number of members or flat purchasers affected. A scattered set of individual complaints reads as small; one consolidated society figure reads as an economic offence.
• Consolidate. If several members have already lodged separate complaints, list them by FIR or complaint number in your covering letter and ask that they be clubbed. Fragmented complaints are the commonest reason a large fraud is treated as a small one.
• Outside Greater Mumbai — Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira-Bhayandar and the rest of the MMR — address the Economic Offences Wing of that Commissionerate instead.

What the society must minute, and when

A criminal case against a developer is decided largely on documents, and the society's own minute book is one of them. Loose or backdated minutes are the first thing a defence lawyer attacks. Record these entries, on these occasions, and have the Chairman and Secretary sign each certified true copy you later annex.

Store certified or notarised copies of the key documents away from the committee's day-to-day files, and keep the originals of anything you were asked to sign but refused — blank pages, backdated letters and "adjusted" consent forms are evidence, not rubbish.

Where else the Registrar can be used

The police route deals with the developer. Where the society's own office-bearers were part of it, the co-operative law gives a separate and much faster money remedy through the Registrar, and committees rarely use it.

• Inquiry under Section 83, MCS Act, 1960. The Registrar can be moved to hold an inquiry into the constitution, working and financial condition of the society. This is how the books get opened.
• Assessment of damages under Section 88, MCS Act, 1960. Where an audit under Section 81, an inquiry under Section 83 or an inspection under Section 84 shows that a person who took part in the organisation or management of the society has misapplied or retained money or property, or has been guilty of misfeasance or breach of trust, the Registrar may inquire into that person's conduct and order them to repay or restore it. That is a recovery order against a delinquent office-bearer, obtained without a civil suit.
• Dispute under Section 91, MCS Act, 1960. A dispute touching the constitution, management or business of the society is referred for decision to the Co-operative Court. Before you file, check that the person you are suing falls within one of the classes of parties listed in Section 91(1) — members, past members, officers, agents, servants and the like. A developer is not automatically inside that list, and a society that refers a dispute against the wrong party loses months on a jurisdiction point. Limitation for the reference is governed by Section 92 of the same Act, and it varies by class of dispute — read it before filing, because it is the deadline societies routinely miss.
• Breach of the 79A directive. Report a hidden committee-developer link to the District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies for your ward, in writing, annexing the minuted objection.

Run RERA and consumer remedies in parallel

A criminal FIR punishes dishonesty, but it will not, by itself, get your building finished or your money returned. Those outcomes come from your civil remedies, and you are usually allowed to pursue both tracks together. While the police investigate, keep pressing on the money and the flat.

Which consumer commission — the tier is decided by value

Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 as amended by the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District, State and National Commission) Rules, 2021, the tier is fixed by the value of the consideration paid, not by the compensation you claim.

Source: Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District, State and National Commission) Rules, 2021. Limitation is two years from the cause of action under s.69(1); a delay can be condoned only on an application showing sufficient cause under s.69(2).

Because the aims differ, many societies keep the money claim alive at MahaRERA under Section 31 while the FIR pursues the dishonesty, and add a consumer claim for deficient service where it fits. The tracks support each other rather than compete. Two RERA points are worth knowing before you file: under Section 13(1) a promoter may not accept more than 10% of the cost of the apartment as advance without first executing a registered agreement for sale, and under Section 4(2)(l)(D) 70% of the money collected from allottees must sit in a separate project account. A breach of either is a documented contravention you can put in front of both MahaRERA and the police.

How to protect your society before it ever reaches an FIR

The best FIR is the one you never have to file. Most redevelopment fraud is prevented at the agreement stage, with a few disciplined habits:

• Put every promise in the registered agreement. Area, corpus, rent and timeline that live only in a brochure are hard to enforce. Registration under Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908, makes the DA and PAAA legally solid.
• Ring-fence the money. Under RERA, 70% of buyers' funds must sit in a separate project account used only for that project (Section 4(2)(l)(D)). Confirm the account exists and pay only into it.
• Keep the selection clean. No committee member, office-bearer or their relative may be the developer under the 4 July 2019 directive; guard against a hidden committee-developer nexus.
• Compare offers on paper, not on charm. Use our offer comparison tool to weigh developers on like-for-like terms before you commit.
• Get the tender and agreement reviewed. An independent tender and agreement review catches the missing clauses and one-sided terms that later turn into disputes.
• Register your society's project early so you have expert eyes on the process from day one. You can register your society to begin.