Mumbai: The Bandra police have registered a case against four employees of ‘Max Packers and Movers’ for allegedly cheating a customer. While shifting household items from Mumbai to Lonavala, the accused allegedly broke open a bag and stole gold and silver ornaments worth Rs.16.15 lakh. Max Packers and Movers is a company based in Kandivali East that offers services for relocating household items from one location to another.
About The Case
According to the FIR, the complainant, Manasi Kulkarni, 46, a yoga teacher residing in Bandra West, contacted ‘Max Packers and Movers’ on August 9 to arrange the transport of her household items from her residence to Lonavala, where her father lives. On the same day, the company sent four employees identified as Pappu, Pradeep Kumar, Khan and Ajay to her Bandra home.
While packing the luggage, one of the workers requested some old clothes for his father for him. Kulkarni gave him a bag containing her father’s old clothes. After loading the belongings into a tempo, she travelled with them to Lonavala. In total, there were seven people in the vehicle, including the driver.
She had kept ornaments and important documents in a travel bag. When she tried to keep the travel bag with her in the cabin, an employee assured her that, since the bag was locked, it could be safely placed at the back. She informed them that it contained valuables and specifically requested them to take special care of it before placing it behind and she sitting in the driver’s cabin.
On the way to Lonavala, one employee alighted at Kalanagar, Bandra East, around 5.30 p.m. carrying a bag of old clothes. When she asked why he had got down, the others told her he was in a hurry for some work and immediately restarted the tempo.
The tempo reached her father’s Lonavala residence at around 9 p.m. After unloading the items, Kulkarni returned to Bandra on August 10, as she did not open the languages immediately.
On September 3, she went to Lonavala again. On September 7, while checking the bag containing her documents and ornaments, she discovered that its lock had been broken and the valuables were missing. She alleged that the accused had transferred the ornaments and documents to the bag of old clothes taken by the employee at Kalanagar. The stolen items were worth around Rs.16.15 lakh.
Following the discovery, she lodged a complaint with the Bandra police against the four employees Pappu, Pradeep Kumar, Khan and Ajay — who had come to her house. Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) and 3(5) (act committed by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on September 15.
