Marketing manager not liable for land developer’s mistakes: HC

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: When a property is purchased, “it is the responsibility of the purchaser to verify the documents as well, and if the purchaser has any claim, he can have it only against the vendors, the developer, or the GPA holders of the vendors and not the marketing manager,” the High Court has said.

In a peculiar case where the marketing manager of a property developer was accused in a criminal case for the mistake of the developer, the HC has quashed the case against the marketing manager. Ashok Reddy KN, a 34-year-old from Bengaluru, approached the HC after a case was lodged against him in the Jigani police station by one N Gopinath, a senior citizen.

The criminal petition came up before Justice MI Arun. Gopinath had purchased a site in UR Castle, Nosenooru village, Anekal from Narayana Reddy, Ramaswamy Reddy, Sudha and Harish, through their GPA holder P Raveendra. Ashok Reddy was the marketing manager for the properties.

The complaint by Gopinath claimed that he was inducted to purchase the property, though all the necessary approvals by the authorities were not obtained. Ashok Reddy claimed before the HC that he was neither the owner nor GPA holder of the property and just the marketing manager. Even then, he has been accused in the criminal case of cheating and other charges.

“The petitioner herein was only a marketing person and complaint pertains to not developing the layout and not getting the sites duly released from BMRDA which is essentially the work of accused No.1 (owner) and accused No.2 (Ashok Reddy) has nothing to do with the same,” the HC said.

Quashing the case pending before the Additional Chief Judge and JMFC at Anekal, the HC said, “Under the given peculiar circumstances of the case, the allegations alleged by the second respondent does not constitute an offence under Sections 420, 468, 471, 406 read with Section 34 of IPC as the petitioner is charged herein.”