Colaba police lodges FIR in BEST bus driver’s dues fraud

Mumbai

Mumbai. The Colaba police have filed a fraud complaint against a private contractor, who allegedly duped around 500 workers by not paying them their salaries, PF and ECIS.

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These workers were hired by the contractor for different works in BEST including bus drivers. Surprisingly, the police have not named any individual or entity as accused in the case and registered an FIR against four unidentified persons.

The Bhartiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya on Tuesday via a tweet has claimed that the FIR was registered against the contractor firm — MP Enterprises and Associations Private Limited (MPEAPL) — Kish Corporate Services India Private Ltd and ex-Mayor Kishori Pednekar’s family.

When contacted, Pednekar refuted the allegations and said she had no role in the firm and hence, her name was not mentioned in the FIR. She also said that the name of Kish Corporate Services India Private Ltd is also not there in the FIR.

She added that this was an attempt by Somaiya to malign the good work she had done as the mayor of Mumbai and that she did not care about what he was saying and was unaffected by it.

The complaint has been filed by a 30-year-old bus driver, Hrishikesh Lahu Kadam, who lives in Kala Chowky. Kadam was recruited by MPEAPL in April 2021 as a bus driver on contract basis in BEST department. His interview and test were conducted by MPEAPL at the Bandra BEST Bust Depot. Kadam underwent a three-day training at the Dindoshi bus depot and was deputed on driver’s duty at the Wadala bus depot.

Till September 2021, Kadam received salary and salary slips from a private firm, which shut down and after that, MPEAPL took over the salary work of drivers. From January 2022 to July 2022, MPEAPL paid salaries to Kadam after standard deduction of PF and ECIS.

Kadam, in his statement given to the police, has said that the accused firm, MPEAPL, failed to pay the PF and ECIS amounts and even salaries for many months. Later, he discovered that there are hundreds of such employees like him. In July 2022, Kadam and others approached a labour court, which on October 14, 2022, directed MPEAPL to pay the employees their dues.

In February 2023, MPEAPL deposited the PF amount, but Kadam’s name was not there in the list of employees whose PF amount was deposited. Hence, he approached the police and filed a complaint saying he suffered wrongful loss of ₹92,086 as his four months’ salary, PF and ECIS amounts were not paid or deposited in his account by MP Enterprises and Associations Private Limited.

The police have registered an FIR under sections 406, 409 and 34 of IPC but have not named any individual or entity a direct accused in the case.