A man almost lost property and got it back along with estranged wife

It isn't wise to trust your drinking buddy over your wife, even if you're fighting with her. A Delhi man learned this the hard way when in a bid to thwart his estranged wife's claims on their marital property, he transferred his home title to a friend - only to have the friend double cross him.

It isn't wise to trust your drinking buddy over your wife, even if you're fighting with her. A Delhi man learned this the hard way when in a bid to thwart his estranged wife's claims on their marital property, he transferred his home title to a friend - only to have the friend double cross him.

Illustration-by-Abhimanyu-Sinha

Mohinder Singh's wife left him in 2000. Soon, she started "threatening" Singh about getting their home in west Delhi's Nagloi village registered in her name.

Desperate, Singh looked to his friend Raj Singh for a solution. It was Raj, Singh said, who suggested he "transfer the property" to him. The deal between them was that "when relations between the couple become cordial, Raj would retransfer the property papers to the Singhs".

The fight between the couple eventually blew over and Singh asked Raj to return the title deeds. But Raj refused to do so, leaving Singh no option but to move the court of additional district judge Kamini Lau in 2010. Singh also cancelled his registered deeds, thinking this would nullify Raj's claim on the house. But Raj filed a counter-claim in the same court.

The court case went on for four years during which time Singh's wife - who remains unnamed in the court papers - stood by his side.

Eventually, on the basis of her admission in court that she had threatened her husband with homelessness, the court decided last week that it was never Singh's intention to transfer the house title permanently to Raj. It nullified the clandestine deal-gone-wrong between the two men and ordered Raj to give the property back to the couple.