On July 11, 26-year-old Saideep Cherukuri, an engineer based in Bengaluru, wanted to transport his bike to his hometown in Tadepalligudem in Andhra Pradesh. After making searches and enquiries on Logisticmart, an online search portal for movers, he received a call from someone claiming to be working with the reputed logistical company Agrawal Packers. He handed over his bike to a man on July 11 but over six weeks later at the start of September, Saideep had lost over Rs 16000 but was no closer to seeing his bike turn up at the destination.
"The man on the call introduced himself as Agrawal packers and movers but when he gave us an invoice for transporting the bike, the company was named Leo International
Saideep initially paid Rs 1000 for transporting after agreeing a price of Rs 4000. But two weeks after he handed over the bike, the man reached out to him asking him to pay Rs 12000 to deliver the bike. He says that even after paying this amount, there has been no trace of his bike over the past month.
Saideep approached Sadashivanagar Police Station in Bengaluru with a complaint on but he says he was told by police officials to wait longer for the company to deliver the bike. Sadashivanagar police inspector M Manjunath told TNM that the complaint was taken up last week on September 3 and the company - Leo International Packers and Movers - was investigated. An FIR was registered in Sadashivanagar police station under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) accusing Anil Kumar and his colleague Jaideep.
"I repeatedly approached the police station for weeks to recover my bike but they said that it could be a delay due to the pandemic.. But when the movers began asking me for more money to deliver the product, I filed a police complaint and eventually, the bike was delivered on Saturday," says Saideep.
M Manjunath, the police inspector at Sadashivanagar police station who investigated the case, says that the police contacted Anil Kumar, the man who collected the bike, through the phone number shared by Saideep. "We brought him in for questioning after visiting his office near Goreguntepalya about withholding cargo meant for delivery. He was released after the cargo was delivered," says Manjunath.
Another Bengaluru resident Asif Khan, 28, also told TNM that personnel who claimed to be from Leo International Packers and Movers have not returned his belongings for over five months now. Asif, a resident of Whitefield in Bengaluru works in the entertainment industry, called up Leo International to move household items on March 20 this year from Bengaluru to Mumbai. Asif found Leo International
According to Saideep and Asif, there are more people who are similarly waiting for their items to be delivered by this company.