Mallika Dureja
A vegetable vendor was apprehended in Mumbai on Thursday for allegedly fleeing with 81.50 lakh in cash collected as an emergency fund by 16 local vegetable and fruit vendors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A police officer stated, “A case was filed in May 2022, but the suspect, identified as Shivkumar Jaiswal, evaded capture and changed locations frequently.” “He was apprehended in the Lat Ghat region of the Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the complainant, Pradeep Kumar Vaishya, in October 2021, Jaiswal and three others approached him and stated that they were small vendors and that the pandemic had brought them difficult times. To combat such financial uncertainties, they should form a fund that could be accessed by any of them in the event of a family emergency.
“They also informed me that in the future, the collective fund could be used to establish a cooperative credit society. Since no one was required to contribute a specific quantity, I began contributing 800 per day to the fund,” Vaishya stated in his complaint. He added that he had lost 8.5 lakh throughout the incident.
“We believed him because he was from our village in Uttar Pradesh. To date, 16 individuals have filed police reports alleging that they have been defrauded of a total of 81.50 lakh. However, a number of others have yet to contact the police. We’ve heard that Jaiswal opened a hotel in Uttar Pradesh,” Vaishya said.
Jaiswal was charged with deception and breach of trust.
“We are pleased that the police have apprehended him. I, too, have invested 3 lakh yen. All of our vendors from the Khar Market and Mahim area, including fruit and vegetable vendors and some milk vendors, had invested with him, according to Nilesh Jaiswal, an additional vendor.
