Background

My In-laws had a land parcel in their native village in northern Maharashtra. They have been staying in Mumbai from past 50 years now and since they have nothing to do with their native place anymore they decided to sell this land parcel at the current market rates. A distant relative who stays there offered to help them with the sale of the land. They being old and not having any other relatives in the area went ahead and gave him the power of attorney to sell the land. Turned out this relative sold the land to a local resident and gave us only half the money and pocketed the other half for himself. Having implicit trust in him my FIL didn’t bother cross verifying with the buyer before signing the registry. Now when we confronted the relative, he is saying he made a deal with a third person who in turn sold the land to the final buyer. We know it’s a load of bullshit and that he’s guilty and took the money for himself. From the very start he made sure we didn’t get to know who the final buyer is. Whenever my in-laws used to visit the native place with respect to selling the land (for registry etc) he used to send a car and a driver so that he could keep a tab on their whereabouts.

I know my FIL is at fault too as he should have used some common sense and not trusted the guy explicitly. However he is pretty old and he was relived at finally having gotten rid of the land.

The deal involved a cash component (around 55% of the total value) which the guy kept for himself. My FIL only got the money which the buyer directly transferred to his bank account.

Registry only has the amount mentioned which was transferred to the bank account (since such huge cash transactions are illegal)

We got a copy of the registry from the buyer however our relative refuses to share a copy of power of attorney with us.

Current situation

My FIL somehow found out the identity of the final buyer. He spoke to the buyer who was equally shocked to learn about this. He confirmed that our relative sold the land to him citing my father in law’s name. And the entire time not once did he mention any other person in this deal.

We visited the native place and met the buyer who assured us of his full cooperation at all times.

Since the guy is our relative we thought we would try and talk some sense into him and get this resolved internally. We even got other people from our community involved hoping the societal pressure would make him relent. We spoke to a few prominent people from the community who agreed to call for a gathering to try and mediate this situation. However he is adamant that he did nothing wrong and is refusing to meet us or anybody regarding this matter.

My in laws are pretty old. Dad is 75 years old and mom is 70 years. The land was in my MIL’s name. My wife is their only legal heir. Proceeds from this sale was to help them in their old age. This entire incident has shook them and left them utterly devastated. Our attempt at getting this issue resolved amicably also did not yield any result. Now we are at a loss as to what to do. We are unsure if there is any valid legal case in this matter as there is no proof of fraud and cheating.

This deal happened in April’2023. And every day that goes by our case becomes more and more weak.
Is there any way we can sue the relative for CHEATING and FRAUD and recover the money? Even if the money is not recovered is there any way we can make his life hell (legally) so that he learns a lesson?

Would appreciate any kind of help/ legal counsel. Thanks