friend took money from me and now denying to return it, what are my legal options
Out of the blue, I received a message from one of my college friends. We spoke over the phone, and he told me that he was planning to shift to Pune. He asked me about the localities there, and during the conversation, he suddenly asked if I had a credit card. He said he wanted to buy a washing machine because he was getting a good discount and promised that he would repay me within a week.
I agreed to help him, and I used my credit card to make the purchase. The total amount was ₹30,000.
A week passed, then two weeks, but he kept giving me excuses for why he couldn't repay me. One day, he told me that he had never received the washing machine because the transaction had been canceled. He claimed that CRED was trying to reverse the transaction, but since I had already paid my credit card bill, the money couldn't be refunded. He then said I needed to make another transaction so the money could be transferred again.
At that point, I felt something was wrong and refused to do it. The next day, he said the transaction had failed in CRED. I asked him to send me a screenshot as proof. He tried to avoid sharing it, but I eventually managed to get the screenshot from him. To my surprise, it showed that the transaction had actually been made toward an education loan, not for a washing machine.
I didn't confront him about the lie or the gaslighting because my priority was getting my money back. After that, he stopped responding to my messages for a couple of days. When I warned him that I would file a police complaint, he told me to "go to the police" and said he would "see me in court."
I don't know what to do. ₹30,000 is a significant amount for me, and I had to borrow the money from my parents to pay my credit card bill. If anyone has been in a similar situation or can suggest what I should do next, I would really appreciate the advice. I have the call recording, WhatsApp chats, and the screenshot of the transaction as evidence.