Dispute with flatmate regarding security deposit

5 years ago

One of my friends got a shared apartment with two girls (one from her college and another person whom she did not know before). All of them together paid a security deposit of Rs 1,00,000/- (50,000/- paid by my friend and 25,000/- each paid by the other two who used to share a room). While making the agreement for the first time, the unknown person was not yet in the picture and my friend paid 75,000/- to the owner, and was later reimbursed by the unknown person to the amount of Rs 25,000/-. At this point a separate agreement was drawn out between the unknown person and the owner, details of which are unclear to us. Now, the unknown person has not been living in the apartment since 20th of April and stopped paying rent, however, her belongings remained in the apartment. She cleared out the flat on 20th of May and informed my friend that her notice for leaving the flat was over 20th April, so she would not be paying the rent for the period of 20th April - 20th May. My friend was unaware of any such notice. She also informed my friend that the owner asked her to collect the deposit from my friend in full because my friend is the person who was initially reimbursed by the unknown person. The overall agreement is supposed to be over in July and the unknown person is not willing to put in any effort to find a replacement, who will bear her share of the rent. My friend does not want to refund because her share of the rent needs to be collected from somewhere. Now the unknown person has lodged a police complaint that the owner and / or my friend is not giving back the money. The owner received a call from the police and informed my friend that he would not be involved in this matter and my friend and her flatmates should resolve the matter before police comes, otherwise they may have to vacate the apartment. What should she do now?