The Bhandup police have arrested six men, including three co-workers of a 23-year-old delivery agent, for allegedly driving the youth to die by suicide after threatening, harassing, and pressuring him to deliberately reject parcels and hand them over to them. The victim, a Bhandup resident, was found dead at his home on Wednesday after weeks of abuse and intimidation, the police told mid-day. According to the FIR filed by the victim’s family on Friday morning, the deceased worked as a delivery agent for an American multinational company with an office in Mulund.
In his statement to the police, the victim’s younger brother said he had noticed his sibling appearing troubled and anxious for about a month, particularly after returning from work. He added that several men would come to their residence and shout at the victim over repayment of money. When the family confronted them, the men claimed that the victim had failed to return Rs 75,000 for some delivered products. The victim’s father then arranged the money and handed it over to two of the men, later identified as Sonu Yadav, 29, and Chetan Gautam, 34.
As per police, accused intended to make victim a scapegoat. Pic/iStock
The family believed the matter had been settled, but around 15 days before the tragedy, the victim again began returning home looking defeated, anxious, and distressed. When they asked him what was wrong, he revealed that Yadav and Gautam were allegedly forcing him to cancel legitimate deliveries — referred to as ‘reject parcels’ — using his employee ID. Despite his refusal, the two men continued to harass, threaten, and abuse him. They allegedly pressured him to deliberately reject parcels and hand them over to them. “The victim told his family that if he kept rejecting parcels, his employee ID could be blocked and he might lose his job, but the accused kept abusing him and forcing him to do it,” said a police officer.
The term ‘rejected parcels’, also known as ‘refused deliveries’, typically refers to packages declined by customers at the time of delivery. This can happen for various reasons, such as the customer not being available, an incorrect address, or a simple refusal to accept the product. However, according to a police officer, some delivery agents misuse this system to run scams by falsely marking legitimate deliveries as rejected. “Sometimes delivery agents collude with customers to earn a commission by exchanging the actual product marked as rejected. The customers either apply for a refund or have to reorder, while the agents pocket a share. In this case, that money was going to the accused,” the officer explained.
The loan
To pay the accused instead of rejecting parcels, the victim borrowed Rs 30,000 from a colleague named Omkar Mane, 28. However, he was unable to repay the loan. Mane then allegedly began abusing the victim and even involved Yadav and Gautam in pressuring and threatening him to recover the money.
On the day of the incident, July 2, the victim was hiding inside his house as the accused had gathered outside, allegedly intending to assault him for not repaying their money. In addition to the previous two accused, three more men, identified as Aniket Ghadi, 24; Ganesh Nikalje alias Dhanraj, 25; and Gautam Dhekale, 23, had also arrived to confront him.
The victim’s family members tried to intervene and assured the group that they would repay the money. However, when they went to check on the victim inside the house, they found that he had died by suicide.
Initially, the police registered an accidental death case, treating it as a suicide. However, preliminary investigations later uncovered the circumstances that allegedly drove the victim to take the extreme step, leading to the registration of a case against the six accused for abetment of suicide, assault, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy.
Police net
Balasaheb Pawar, senior police inspector of Bhandup police station, said the six men were detained on Thursday following inquiries, after which the family formally lodged an FIR. They were placed under arrest on Friday morning and produced before court, which remanded them in police custody.
Of the six accused, Ghadi, Mane, and Yadav were colleagues of the victim at the same company. According to police, Ghadi and Mane worked as delivery agents like the victim, while Yadav was employed as an executive area manager. “The three schemed to misuse the rejected parcel system to make money illegally and made the victim a scapegoat so they would not be caught if the fraud was exposed by their superiors,” an official said. All six accused are residents of the Mulund and Bhandup areas. Among the other three accused, Gautam runs his own business, Nikalje is a tattoo artist, and Dhekale works as a compounder.
July 2
Day victim died by suicide
6
No. of arrested accused
Suicide helplines
Samaritans Mumbai (Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm)
91-84229-84527
Connecting NGO (From 10 am to 8 pm)
9922004305/9922001122
Snehi (From 10 am to 10 pm)
9376804102
1 Life
7893078930
Aasra
9820466726
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