Mumbai: Pet shop owner gets paid after mid-day report

Former corporator Rakhee Jadhav and exotic pet shop owner Wajid Shaikh

The Jogeshwari-based exotic pet shop owner, Wajid Shaikh, received a payment of Rs 1.95 lakh just after mid-day published the story detailing how former NCP-SP corporator Rakhee Jadhav organised a Van Mahotsav at Ghatkopar. The event featured an ostrich and other exotic birds, but the pet shop owner had not allegedly been paid for his services.

Shaikh, who runs an exotic pet shop in Jogeshwari West, rented several exotic birds for the event. Shaikh received only a R50,000 advance payment and had been requesting the remaining R2 lakh for the past two months from Jadhav and her husband, Satish. After filing a complaint with the Goregaon police and requesting an FIR for fraud against Jadhav and her husband, Shaikh had not seen any action from the police.

Following the publication of the article in mid-day, Shaikh received a call from an unknown individual threatening him for reporting the issue. Shortly after, he received R1.95 lakh from Jadhav's PA, though Rs 5,000 remains unpaid, which Shaikh chose not to pursue further. Shaikh expressed his gratitude to mid-day for bringing attention to his issue, which helped him get his hard-earned money. Since July, he had been anxious about how he would manage to pay the bird owners. "Now I am able to pay all the bird owners from whom I rented the birds," Shaikh said.

The Van Mahotsav took place from July 18 to 29 at Ghatkopar and featured Mumbai's first display of an ostrich. Despite multiple attempts to get payment, Shaikh was repeatedly avoided by the Jadhav and her husband, prompting him to go to police. "There was some miscommunication with the pet distributor, and the payment was made on September 2," said Satish.