Five people, including three members of a dabbawala association, have been booked for allegedly duping them on pretext of the two-wheelers; tiffin delivery men were also shocked to find loans against their names.
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The Ghatkopar police have booked five persons – including three members of a dabbawala association - for allegedly duping 60 dabbawalas (tiffin delivery boys) on the pretext of offering them free two-wheelers for delivery. According to the FIR registered on February 4, office bearers of a dabbawalas’ association took documents from around 60 dabbawalas in October 2015, but only 37 of them received the mopeds. The dabbawalas, most of whom are illiterate, were dumbfounded when in 2017 they realized there were loans against their names for the two-wheelers, when each of them received a notice from a bank saying their assets worth R31,000 would be seized if they didn’t pay the instalments.
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Sachin Gawde, a 38-year-old dabawala attached to Mumbai Jevan Dabe Wahtuk Mandal, an association of dabawalas, said the secretary of the association, Vitthal Sawant, its spokesperson Subhash Talekar and a member, Dashrath Kedari, held a meeting in the month of September 2015. The trio told members that every dabbawala would get a free moped to deliver tiffins as part of a welfare scheme. All they had to do was to fill up a form with essential details and give necessary documents.
Driven by free mopeds
The trio had brought forms of Bhairavnath Credit Society, APMC Market, Navi Mumbai. At least 60 dabbawalas filled the forms. In 2016, some mopeds were handed over. After waiting for more than couple of years, when some dabbawalas questioned the office bearers about it, they received vague answers. Finally, the dabbawalas decided to forget the matter.
But in March 2017, many dabbawalas received a notice from the Bhairavnath Credit Society, saying their assets worth Rs 31,000 would be seized if they didn’t start paying instalments. The dabbawalas didn’t understand why they received the notice when they hadn’t applied for any loan. From the bank they came to know that a vehicle loan was disbursed to 60 of them. Shocked, they rushed to the office bearers who replied they would sort out the matter.
What office bearers did
"The office bearers had actually filled out loan forms of the credit society and then handed over the sanctioned amount of Rs 18.60 lakh to a vehicle dealer, Rakesh Pasade, proprietor of Sai Enterprises. At least 23 dabbawalas received vehicles, but the RTO didn’t pass them. Then the trio changed the dealer to one Bhavesh Doshi, who issued 14 vehicles, also without documents,” said an officer from Ghatkopar police station.
"After repeated requests when we didn't receive the vehicles and got a loan against out names, we wrote a complaint application to Ghatkopar police station in November 2019, said Gawde.
Police speak
"We verified the claims and documents provided by the dabbawalas and have registered an offense against five persons (the office bearers and dealers). All have been booked under IPC section 406 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention),” said Kusum Waghmare, senior inspector of Ghatkopar police station.
The other side
When contacted, Subhash Talekar, the spokesperson of the dabbawalas’ association, said “This an attempt to malign my image. We had done this for the welfare of dabbewalas. Nobody has got cheated. In fact the dealers have returned the money to the credit society. I have been informing all the authorities that. This is happening to defame me.”
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