Mumbai: An offence of cheating and criminal breach of trust has been registered against the former chairman and the spokesperson of Mumbai Jevan Dabbe Vahatuk Association after the members of association complained about them on Tuesday.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered at Ghatkopar police station, 23 members of the association have claimed that the loan has been taken in their name without their knowledge and were not given a motorcycle as promised.
Police said, three accused have been identified as former chairman of the association Vitthal Sawant, spokesperson Subhash Talekar and a member Dasharath Kedari. Additionally, police have booked two bike dealers. According to the complaint, a meeting headed by the three main accused was held in September or October 2015, wherein they had informed the other members that delivering lunch boxes on bicycles was time and energy consuming, and quick transport could be made with the help of Moped bikes.
The trio then claimed a Navi Mumbai based financial institute is ready to give them Moped for free. Since all the three accused were closely related to the association, the members accepted their proposal and blindly signed the forms, while submitting their documents.
Surprisingly, a few were given Mopeds while the majority were not given anything. In March 2017, the members were shocked after they received financial institutes messages saying they have unpaid motorcycle loan and their property will be confiscated unless the loan is repaid.
In his complaint Sachin Gavade said, during its departmental investigation it was revealed Sawant, Talekar and Kedari made us fill loan forms on the pretext of providing us free bikes and later the amount was transferred to the two bike dealers.
Of the 61 members of the association loan of Rs18.60 lakh were approved for 60 members which was further given to the bike dealer Rakesh Prasad of Sai Enterprises who distributed 23 Mopeds to members. The other dealer Bhavesh Doshi gave Mopeds to other 14 members however 23 members are yet to receive any bike.
In his defence, Talekar said the complaint against him is baseless and was made to simply malign his image. The 22 members who claimed they have not received the Mopeds, half their money was already returned to the financial institution while the other half is yet to be disbursed by the bike dealer.
