Mumbai: In a shocking incident of laxity on the part of the police, a 25-year-old woman had to go all the way up to the deputy chief minister because the police, for 19 long months, refused to register an open-and-shut case of cheating despite her having provided all the necessary material.
The complainant, Maitree Shah, has been fighting a lone battle against the system since October 2020 after being cheated out of all that her grandfather had saved up for her future—over ₹5 crore—first by her uncle and then by a family friend.
On January 8, 2021, Maitree submitted a written application to the Sion police, seeking registration of an FIR against Jitendra Shah, a family friend and former business partner of her grandfather, Rajendra Daftari. Jitendra had borrowed ₹3.32 crore from Daftari, and Maitree’s grandmother Jaswantiben, after Daftari’s death in October 2020, had been asking him to return the money. Finally, on January 8, the written application, signed by Jaswantiben, was submitted to the Sion police.
Before Jitendra’s alleged betrayal, Maitree had had to contend with being cheated by her own uncle. “When my grandfather was on his deathbed in hospital, my uncle, Arun Shah, came to our house,” she said. “This was completely unexpected, as he had disowned his parents decades ago. My grandmother was overjoyed to see him, and he took advantage of this to make her sign a blank cheque. The next thing we knew was that ₹2.53 crore were debited from my grandfather’s account.”
On October 27, when Daftari passed away, Maitree came home and found Arun in the living-room. She asked him about the money debited from the account, but Arun allegedly got aggressive and manhandled her before leaving. Later, Maitree found that all the cash, jewellery and designer watches in the cupboard, too, were gone.
Worse was to come. Two days after Daftari’s death, a team of policemen, accompanied by Arun, landed up. They told Jaswantiben that they had received information that she was in very bad health, and they were taking her to a hospital right away. A stunned Jaswantiben broke into tears, but fortunately, the building’s committee members came to Maitree’s help, and called a doctor who examined Jaswantiben and declared her fit. The police then had to leave.
Providentially, Maitree had installed a spy camera in her living-room after Arun and his family allegedly stole her valuables. The camera captured Arun and the policemen intimidating Jaswantiben. HT is in possession of a copy of the footage.
On November 6, Maitree went to Sion police station to file an FIR against Arun over the ₹2.3 crore that had been debited from Daftari’s account as well as the theft in her house. She submitted CCTV footage from the building lobby, which showed Arun, his wife and his son entering empty-handed and exiting with bags in their hands no less than eight times. Her complaint however, was converted into an FIR only after two months.
When months passed without any action against Arun, Maitree met the then commissioner of police Sanjay Pandey, who transferred the investigation to the Mumbai Crime Branch. Meanwhile, she was jolted by another rude shock. When she made enquiries with the bank how it had allowed such a large sum of money to be withdrawn by Arun without checking with the family, she discovered that Arun had submitted a power of attorney signed by Jaswantiben. A stunned Maitree sent the document to a private forensic expert and discovered that it was forged. “I kept thinking I would tell the Crime Branch about it when they called me. But I never got a call,” she said.
In July 2022, Maitree suddenly learnt that the Crime Branch had filed a chargesheet against Arun. She rushed to the court and obtained a copy, only to discover that the Crime Branch had dropped Section 380 of the Indian Penal Code—the section for theft—from the chargesheet altogether.
HT has accessed both the FIR against Arun and the chargesheet filed by the Crime Branch. The FIR invokes sections 354(A) (outraging a woman’s modesty), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 380 (theft) and 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) while the chargesheet only has sections 354 (A), 420 and 406.
Meanwhile, the application against Jitendra, too, was in limbo despite Maitree submitting all documentary evidence, including Daftari’s bank statements and income-tax returns. She kept visiting the police station regularly but to no avail. In the meantime, Jitendra filed civil suits against her.
“I refused to bow down to his pressure,” said Maitree. “As if by providence, one of his friends sent me a recording of his telephone conversation with Jitendra where Jitendra is clearly heard saying that he will bury me under court cases and harass me to the point where I will not want to live anymore.” HT has a copy of the recording.
On October 10, a disheartened Maitree, through a relative, managed to get an audience with Deputy CM Fadnavis. What was supposed to be a five-minute meeting went on for an hour as Maitree poured her heart out about her prolonged ordeal. The DCM then wrote a detailed remark on her application, ordering further investigation on the FIR against Arun and an immediate FIR against Jitendra. The second FIR was registered on October 13 and is now under investigation.
When contacted, Fadnavis confirmed the incident and said, “In a democratic system, everyone has the right to approach a higher authority if they feel dissatisfied with certain authorities. We will look into what led to her not getting justice at the primary level itself.”
Maitree told HT that she was aware that this was not the end of the battle. “But my parents did not raise a quitter,” she said. “The money misappropriated by my uncle and family friend was my grandfather’s hard-earned money. And I will continue to fight to get it back.”