Cobbler district at night

Singing:  Cobbler mend my shoe, get it done by half past two.

Half past two is much too late, get it done by half past eight.

Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe, get it done by half past two.

Stitch it up and stitch it down, then I'll give you half a crown.

Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe...

00.00.00.00

Rajinder at work

Schwartz:  Rajinder Baukuram works sixteen hours a day.

00.44

On a good day he makes two dollars profit. Where he works is where he sleeps. There's little time for anything else.

This has been Rajinder's life for the past 20 years, as it was for his father and grandfather before that.

They used to be called the Untouchables, the lowest of the low on India's caste ladder.

01.06

Today, the name is banned, but nothing else has changed.

Cobbler's workshop.

Across Mumbai, sixty thousand cobblers are cutting, tapping and stitching their way into the night. It's an arduous, anonymous existence. But for the past few months, these artisans have become front page news. Unwitting celebrities in a multi-million dollar fraud, which has shaken this city to its core. A fraud the locals are calling ‘the great cobbler scam of Mumbai.'

01.21

Singers at racing function

Singing:  ...two, three, four, tell the people what she wore.

It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dot bikini, that she wore for the first time today.

01.48

Schwartz:  It's one of the biggest days on the racing calendar, and the well-heeled are out in force.

Racegoers

There's money to made in Mumbai, but only with the right caste and connections.

02.17

A decade ago, the government began a drive to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

It set aside millions of dollars to aid the impoverished. But the poor never heard about any money, let alone saw it. The funds were hijacked by the so-called pillars of society.

02.35

For more than ten years, they gambled with other people's money, reaping huge dividends for themselves.

FX:  traffic

Music

Shoe stores

Schwartz:  At the heart of the cobbler scam are the big show retailers - Metro, Dawood and City Walk. According to police, these companies set up fake cobbler cooperatives, with ghost members. They then use these cooperatives to claim tax concessions and low interest loans, ripping off the government to the tune of $600 million.

03.13

Ilyas in shoe factory

The first Mohammad Ilyas knew about the scandal was when the police came knocking.

03.42

The owner of a small shoe factory, Ilyas has never received a low interest loan from the government, as much as he would have liked to. But the police had different information.

Ilyas:  I can't read or write but I know that this paper came to our factory. It lists 140 names - some of whom are dead - so I feel like laughing -they don't even leave the dead alone.

List

Schwartz:  The list - drawn up by Metro Shoes - supposedly named cobblers who had received government money. It was a complete fabrication. Ten of those named were already dead. The rest, like Ilyas, never received even one rupee.

Ilyas

Ilyas:  They've given the names of many of our brothers - including me.  Nobody got even one rupee.  The whole thing was cooked up to fool the police.  They published this list, complained to the police, then put the blame on us.

Music

Police at Sagar Developments office

Schwartz:  Now the police are hunting down the real culprits, untangling an intricate web of deceit. One which involves not only show retailers, but bankers, bureaucrats and politicians. For months, these officers have been raiding and shutting down businesses across town.

05.01

Today it's the turn of Sagar Construction. The police have already been through this place once before. Today, they'll lock it up.

Cop

Cop:  They invested much of the money out of the scam in these premises - that's why we have to seal the premises.

Schwartz:  So you're coming in to close it down?

05.41

Cop:  Yes, we've come to close down. After searching we'll close it down and put  on our seal.

Owner interview

Owner:  Their allegation is that I have taken some money.

Super:

RAHIM MAREDIA

Managing Dir. Sagar Constructions

Schwartz:  Under the cobbler cooperative scheme?

Owner:  I signed for a guarantee of 50 lakh rupees loan to help a friend. That's all.

Schwartz:  The friend he helped was the owner of Metro Shoes - one of the retailers accused of setting up fake cobbler cooperatives.

06.06

Prabhat Sharan interview

Prabhat:  The thing is that almost all the cooperatives are nothing but schemes to milk the finances for one's own benefit. It is not meant for the poor or anybody else. It is just meant to maintain the status quo.

Schwartz in car with Prabhat

Schwartz:  Journalist, Prabhat Sharan, has covered the crime beat in Mumbai (Bombay) for the past decade.

Schwartz:  In the city which five years ago brought you the multi-billion dollar stock exchange scandal, there's never a shortage of good yarns, particularly frauds.

What's so amazing about the cobbler scam however is that the police knew about it 12 years ago. And did nothing.

Prabhat interview

Prabhat:  This case was registered in 1985. And it was an anonymous case, a tip off, and the case was registered in Bombay police. Nobody was willing to touch it. It kept on collecting dust. Last year, another police officer took over, and he went to the files and he reregistered it, and the study started.

07.02

Schwartz:  That's Sanjay Pandey?

Prabhat:  Yeah, he did it.

Office of Deputy Police Commissioner, Sanjay Pandey

Schwartz:  Every afternoon, Deputy Police Commissioner, Sanjay Pandey, opens his door to the public. It's a ritual he started after moving into the economic offences wing, a year and a half ago. And there's never a shortage of visitors.

Complainant:  Smuggling.

Pandey:  Against you?

Complainant:  No, not against me, against my brother.

Pandey:  So you come here on behalf of your brother?

Complainant:  Yes, I've been the one conducting the whole case.

Schwartz:  Commissioner Pandey is a rare breed - a cop brave enough to take on the establishment.

08.04

In a move some believe is professional suicide, Pandey reopened the cobbler file, and began bringing in some of the biggest names in town.

Pandey interview

Pandey:  The people who were involved were the best of the society, you know. They're wining and dining with the best and the very best in Bombay.

08.21

Music

Newsreel footage of Daya

Schwartz:  People such as Sadruddin Daya, the owner of Dawood Shoes. The man who once held the city's highest honorary position - the Sheriff of Mumbai.

Pandey interview

Pandey:  His own present worth is rated somewhere around ten million Australian dollars. That's the kind of man that we're talking about.

Prabhat interview

Schwartz:  Tell me about his lifestyle and the type of person he is.

08.52

Prabhat:  He's quite a flamboyant person. He moves in upper circles. And always surrounded by beauties. And he likes to play host, collect antiques and art objects, hold parties and move in political circles, that's all.

Schwartz:  So he's very influential?

Prabhat:  Yeah, he's very, very influential. That's why he was made Sheriff of Bombay. Because it's a political post. He can make calls to anybody up to Delhi and he thought that he will get away with it.

Police looking at Daya's cars

Schwartz:  Today, the good life for Daya is not as good as it used to be.

09.36

Music

Schwartz:  Pandey has impounded Daya's fleet of luxury cars.

09.50

Music

Schwartz:  Pulled the shutters on his 12 Mumbai shoe stores, and indefinitely docked his 60 foot teak launch.

Music

Daya's beach bungalow

Schwartz:   And the weekend parties at the bungalow by the sea, well, they're out too.

10.11

Music

Schwartz:  So what's this here?

Cop:  This is Daya's bungalow. We can say it is a castle. This is the main structure.

10.23

Schwartz:  Pretty big for a bungalow, isn't it?

Cop:  It's a big bungalow.

Schwartz:  Today, the only people at Daya's residences are the police.

As for Daya, he's just spent two months in jail, under police interrogation.

Cop:  You can see inside all his nicely decorated, all antique pieces.

Schwartz:  So have you ever seen anything like it before?

Cop:  No, this is the first time I have seen it. I used to see in the movie, but not like this in reality. It's a luxurious life.

Schwartz:  Along with his art objects, Daya collected powerful friends. Government ministers, past and present, some of whom have appeared for him in court.

10.59

As yet, Daya and the other accused retailers have not been charged. But Pandey is sure he has the evidence to follow through - right to the top.

Pandey interview

Pandey:  We have been able to do, at least try to fix the private businessmen so far. I hope we will very soon be arresting the banks and the government officials and also some of these persons who had misused their power  when they were the policy makers. You call them politicians, yeah. A few of them certainly will see the wrap of the case.

Prabhat Sharan interview

Prabhat:  There are big affairs, because ultimately the politicians are behind the whole scam. The accused here are just the front people, the politicians are the people who floated it. There are a lot of big fishes still moving around.

11.44

Daya's bungalow. Pan right to shanties on beach

Schwartz:  The most distressing aspect of the cobbler scam is that it comes as no real surprise to anyone.

It's just one more example of the corruption which riddles Indian society, and which has left the poor, 50 years after independence, still fighting for their freedom.

Alleyways on Mumbai

Schwartz:  But in the back alleyways of Mumbai, the poor are sick of waiting for the system to help them.

12.28

While Sadruddin Daya and the other accused protest their innocence and mount their defence, the cobblers are watching their meagre businesses buckle. Not only haven't they been paid by the retailers, now with the shoe shops shut, they've lost their orders as well.

Cobblers' meeting

Qureshi:  How are we going to go on? How will we feed our kids? How are we going to work? It's only when we are all together that we can decide that.

12.54

Schwartz:  Angry after years of constant exploitation, the cobblers have taken their own action. They've formed a union, to demand a better deal.

13.05

Cobbler:  The government money is for us - everything is for us, but we don't get anything.  We don't get our money. It's wrong.

Cobbler 2:  For three or four months we've had nothing but trouble - even the workers have left.

Cobbler 3:  The way it is now, we won't get our money. And nobody will give us a loan.

13.15

Rajinder at meeting

Schwartz:  For Rajinder Baukuram - too terrified of the big retailers to talk with us - even attending this meeting is a huge step.

13.32

But he and the other cobblers are determined they won't be duped again.

Cobbler:  We should call a meeting and hold a rally - that will solve it all. We should march on the government of Maharashtra or go on a hunger strike. We have to do something or our life will be hell.

Prabhat interview

Prabhat:  Right now it's a stalemate. Neither the police has won, neither the accused have managed to get away. It's a stalemate. Nobody has won. It's just a matter of time. Let's see what happens.

Cobblers working

Singing:  Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe, get it done by half past two.

Stitch it up and stitch it down, then I'll give you half a crown.

Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe,

Yes good master, that I'll do.

Here's my awl and wax and thread

And now your shoe is quite mended.

ENDS

14.47