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.

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.