Mumbai: Contractor duped me, says Covid jumbo centre plumber

The Somaiya Covid jumbo centre at Sion. File Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

A plumber from Vasai who set up the Somaiya Covid jumbo centre at Sion has filed a case against a BMC contractor for not paying his dues of around Rs 7.5 lakh. The 35-year-old complainant has told the Juhu police that he took great risks to work on the project in the middle of the pandemic but was later snubbed by the accused.

The police on Thursday registered a case against the contractor Gaurav Agarwal, who owns Satech Engineering Private Limited at Juhu, and project manager Sudipta Das. No arrests have been made yet. Complainant Raghunath Shivshankar Rai runs Purva Enterprises at Vasai. He said Agarwal got in touch with him on September 9, 2021, and spoke to him about a Covid jumbo centre near Somaiya engineering college. Rai agreed to do the work.

"It was Covid time and there were barely any plumbers in Mumbai as almost everyone had gone to their village. Those in Mumbai were too scared to work due to the pandemic. Still, I accepted the project. The total cost was Rs 13,81,042 and it was decided that they would pay 20 per cent in advance. It was also decided that payments would be cleared as work progressed."

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Rai said he started the work on September 14 and was paid Rs 2,76,208. "On November 6, they gave me Rs 2,45,134 and I was paid Rs 1,13,850 on December 13. After that, the company stopped the payment. I trusted them and completed the jumbo centre work as it was urgently needed for Covid patients," he said.

Rai added that he recently visited Agarwal's Juhu office after his multiple calls for the balance payment didn't yield any result. "When I met Gaurav Agarwal, he told me: ‘tumhara paisa nahi milega, jo ukhadna hai ukhad lo' [you won't get the money, do whatever you want to]. I was very upset, I called police control room 100 and informed them about this. The police verified my details and registered an FIR against Agarwal and the project manager. I helped people during a global emergency. Instead of releasing my payment, they abused and threatened me," said Rai.

He added, "The police should arrest them and give me justice." Senior Inspector Ajitkumar Vartak of Juhu police station said, "We have registered the FIR under Sections 34 (common intention) and 420 (cheating) and are investigating the matter. We have not arrested anyone in this case yet."

Rs 13.8L
Cost of the work finished by Rai

Rs 6.3L
Amount contractor has paid to Rai so far