Ramesh Kumar
22-year old Yunis Khan (orange collarless full sleeves banian) at the parking lot in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh was not "Be Prepared" (remember the motto of Baden Powell, the founder of Scout movement?) on the night of February 10, 2017 when he was waylaid near Buldana in Uttar Pradesh ferrying Rs.65 lakhs worth of Hindustan Lever's cosmetics from its Haridwar plant to Chennai as stock transfer.
His brother in law Javed Khan (next to Yunis), the original driver of this consignment, had to pass on the vehicle to Yunis to attend to some family emergency. Otherwise, perhaps, he would have been the victim or who knows, this ugly episode would not have transpired.
Yunis was force-fed with sleep-inducing substance by a group of thugs around 1 a.m. after abruptly stopping his truck in the presence of his nephew Tauseef, sleeping next to him in the driver cabin. Later the child too was drugged to put him off. Fourteen hours later, Yunis wakes up in a government hospital and has no memory of what transpired.
Entire Lever goods vanished. Varuna Integrated Logistics, in whose name, the 'bilty' was made, hired Sure truck. Outsourced,yes!
Now, Sure malik Ram Saini (extreme left in the photo) is asked to cough up Rs.65 lakhs or return the stolen material asap. After much toing-and-froing, a zero FIR is filed at Kundli/Haryana and later transferred to Uttrakhand Superintendent of Police jurisdiction, revealed by Sonepat SP Ashwin Shenvi whom I met along with Ram Saini (22 February 2017). God knows when this highway heist will be resolved.
Key questions:
1) According to Ram Saini, the latest loot of Lever goods by highway goons is not a solitary incident. Many such incidents involving Lever items have happened. Has Lever taken it up with authorities? 2) There is something called *Carriage By Road Act* and Varun Integrated Logistics is believed to be a registered company under that. This Act limits liability of transporter in case of such thefts to a maximum of Rs.10 lakhs (one million rupees). If so, why Varun demanding Rs.65 from Ram Saini?*Needs clarity.
During the meeting with the Superintendent of Police, Sonepat, Ram Saini submitted a letter requesting scaling up of this investigation because there seems to a well oiled interstate gang seems to be targetting such high value of Lever particularly.
A letter from my end is on the way to Hindustan Lever honcho in this regard. Uninsured cargo by Lever is a key question. Insured cargo would have entailed filing of FIR and then company could have claimed from insurance companies. And, is there any involvement of Lever Haridwar team working hand in glove with the thugs who in turn enjoy some 'setting' with some Lever distributors somewhere. Because distributing Lever products clandestinely would be tough._Interestingly, the Lever factory is in Haridwar, Uttrakkhad; crime happened Uttar Pradesh; looted material transhipped in Saboli village, Haryana. A perfect interstate gang is operational.
A perfect script of lawlessness on Indian highways .
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