Mumbai: Six held for stealing products from parcels of e-commerce firm

According to an officer from the Tardeo police station, “Surve is the mastermind in the case, as he came up with the plan and roped other delivery boys in.” Police also said that the six have been committing this crime for a year. (Representational Image)

Four delivery boys and two shop owners have been arrested for allegedly stealing commodities from e-commerce company parcels, which were meant for delivery. The police said the group would pretend to be the customer and place orders on their application. Once the package would reach them, the four delivery boys would open the parcel and replace the product inside with a heavy object and send it back to the company’s warehouse, under the pretext of the delivery being declined by the customer.

The four delivery boys, identified as Rahul Surve (30), Harish Ballard (21), Bhushan Kolsumkar (32) and Yashwant Pasilkar (47), would sell the stolen products to shopowners Bharat and Tushar Jain on Lamington Road. The shopowners would buy these stolen goods at much lesser value, and sell them further. The police said Surve would pay Rs 3,000 to the other delivery boys for each valuable they stole.

According to an officer from the Tardeo police station, “Surve is the mastermind in the case, as he came up with the plan and roped other delivery boys in.” Police also said that the six have been committing this crime for a year.

Using this modus operandi, the delivery boys have stolen 13 apple watches and nine laptops, the officer said. “The incident came to light after the parcels reached (the company’s) godown in Bhiwandi. As similar cases started happening more often, (the company) came to the police station and registered a case in February,” the officer added.

While hunting for leads, the police brought the delivery boys in for interrogation, and when none of them confessed, they started scrutinising their call data records, during which they learnt that Surve was in frequent touch with the shop owners.

“Surve earned Rs 18,000 a month and travelled in cars and led a lavish lifestyle, which bro-ught him under our radar,” said Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Surve. “We interrogated him last week and he confessed. He revealed the names of five others who were involved in the scam.”

The six have been booked for cheating and common intention under the IPC. They have been remanded in judicial custody.

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