Relocating to Pune turns nightmare for software engineer

Noida, November 20

A software engineer had a nightmarish time relocating to Pune from Noida after the packers and movers service he hired went untracked with his belongings worth Rs 12 lakh for over 20 days.

Having waited for over two weeks for his household items to reach Pune, the 31-year-old man, who was staying in Sector 121 and worked in an IT firm here, recently approached the police in both Pune as well as in Noida, seeking a probe into the matter, according to officials.

The case was first reported at the Nigdi police station in Pune and then to Phase 3 police station in Noida, who had tracked the owner of the movers and packers service, the officials said.

According to the complainant, he had searched for the service on Justdial search engine and later got a phone call from the accused firm which offered to do the job for Rs 61,000.

“All household items, including furniture and electronics and also my certificates and documents, were loaded on the truck. It left on October 24 and was scheduled to reach Pune on October 28. My family and I had reached Pune by flight and waited for our belongings to arrive. It was only after waiting till November 2 that we approached the police,” the man, originally from Lucknow, told PTI.

The man alleged that in the meantime he started getting calls from the driver of the truck that the owner of the packers and movers had not given him any money and he would “destroy all the stuff”.

“The driver, who identified himself as Nihal, demanded that Rs 30,000 be transferred to his bank account or he would destroy the stuff,” the man said.

“When we called up the owner, Rajesh Chauhan, he continued dilly-dallying and giving vague responses and then we approached the police,” he added.

However, when the matter was probed, it turned out that both the driver and the owner of the packers and movers were one and the same person, a senior officer said.

“He kept switching phone numbers in order to bluff the customer and had been absconding since the matter was brought to us,” Superintendent of Police, Noida City, Sudha Singh, said.

“When Justdial was contacted, they said they provided advertisement space to any service provider on their portal and bore no responsibility for their authenticity,” she said.

The complainant told PTI on Tuesday that he and his family were back in Pune and had finally got back their belongings after the police intervention. PTI