Mumbai's dabbawalas cheated of Rs 1 crore by two brothers

The Dabbawala association had earned the money via lectures and other events Representation picAfter taking a massive bite out of the money belonging to Mumbais dabbawalas two con brothers will now be forced to chew on prison food instead The Shivaji Park police have arrested the crooks who swindled nearly Rs 1 crore out of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association by hijacking their website and email IDCops suspect the prime accused Mayur Kanti stole Rs 1 crore from the dabbawalasThe police have arrested main accused Mayur Kanti 39 and his brother Rishabh Kanti 33 for impersonating the dabbawala community online and siphoning off their earnings from international lectures The police have so far traced fraudulent transactions amounting to R60 lakh but the cops suspect that the scam is much larger to the tune of Rs 1 croreThe prime accused Mayur KantiDCP Zone V Rajiv Jain said The amount is likely to increase and we are also probing the role of other suspects in the caseSlow pace of probemidday had reported on this fraud on July 28 after the cops booked the two conmen for the crime However the criminal brothers have only been arrested nowAlso readMumbai Men dupe tiffin service owner of 24 lakhs caughtThere are some other accused who are yet to be arrested People involved in the scam are trying to influence the investigation said Ulhas Muke president of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers AssociationThe FIR was filed upon a complaint by 63yearold dabbawala Sambhaji Medge after the tiffin carriers found lakhs missing from their funds This money had come from ads presentations and lectures delivered at international universities by the dabbawalas who have long been held up as a perfect case study for management philosophies because of their ability to manage time and deliver lakhs of dabbas all over the city with unerring accuracyMoney was for a good causeThe fees they earn from these trips are deposited with two trusts mdash Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers and Mumbai Tiffin Box suppliers Association Some of the money is donated The remaining money is kept aside for the dabbawalas insurance and to provide financial assistance to the families of tiffin carriers who suffer unnatural deathsThe prime accused Mayur was an event coordinator hired by Subodh Sangale the speaker and coordinator for the association But Mayur redirected the money to a bank account under the company The Indian Coin owned by his brother Rishabh He even took cash from the clients sources saidAlso read Mumbai dabbawalas to help recycle tetrapak cartons and fund education of needyWhen the association found out that R1529 lakh was missing they were shocked to learn that Mayur was behind it Immediately they sacked him but Mayur grew bolder with his scheming Investigations revealed how he misused the letterhead and the signatures of the other office bearers to fool Rediffmail into giving him control of the associations email account and website He then hijacked the dabbawalas online identity and began to take money from clientsThe Shivaji Park police have charged the accused under Sections 406 criminal breach of trust 420 cheating 34 common intention of the IPC and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology ActWas there a nexusWhile seeking the accuseds custody the police on Friday informed the court that they have come across indications of connivance between the accused and Rediffmail They learnt that the web portal allowed the fraudsters to operate despite complaints being lodged with their legal cellAsked about the involvement of Rediffmail employees DCP Jain said So far we have not found anything but we are investigating into it deeplyThe police found that the duo had stolen Rs 5916 lakh from 3540 events between April 2015 and October 2016 Cops have frozen Rs 397 lakh in the accuseds accountsRs 60 lakhValue of transactions already traced by cops