Meet India’s richest trade union leader who’s now trying to explain her wealth

Mehta died in 2003, but turns out the union never let his family take the car. In 2006, his wife Suman made a ‘no claim accident bonus’ as they set the ownership process in motion. But the insurance company informed her that the car had been involved in an accident the same year. A claim was made by the Free Trade Union Multipurpose Trust — an EMS body — and an amount of Rs 1.4 lakh paid.

When police investigated Suman’s complaint regarding this, they found that the claim papers had Mehta’s signatures, three years after his death. Moreover, insurance officials told police that a woman called Chand Biwi Zaidi returned the amount claimed to the insurance company after the probe was launched.

The incident has triggered a spate of allegations against Zaidi, who came to Mumbai in 1977 to write the entrance test for a Central Reserved Police Force job but ended up as a clerk-cum-receptionist at EMS for a Rs 350 monthly salary. Today, she is the only woman leader of a major union in the country and earns an estimated Rs 40 lakh a year.

While the Deputy Registrar at the Labour Commissioner’s office is hearing the charges against her, she and Mehta’s family, backed by some former EMS members, have become involved in a war of words as Zaidi is accused of taking over union properties and misappropriating funds.

“She has raised this money by misusing funds meant for employees who are members of the union,” accuses Mehta’s son Kiran.

Separately, police have charged her and two others with forgery and cheating in the insurance case, which is being heard by a Girgaum court.

“I do not hold any assets, neither does my union,” Zaidi, who is about 50 years’ old, told The Indian Express. “In fact, the union is today in a very bad shape as we did not take assets as mortgage from those who took loans from it.”

One of the main subjects of contention, in fact, is a 1,000 sq ft apartment on the tony Altamount Road in south Mumbai. EMS got the apartment from Bollywood costume suppliers Maganlal Dresswala, who had mortgaged it to cover a financial commitment, which they failed to keep.

Zaidi was named the representative of EMS when the property was transferred to the union in 1999. But it disappeared from the union’s list of assets after 2002 and was sold a month after Mehta’s death in 2003.

Zaidi counters all hints of wrongdoing, saying the apartment was gifted to her by Mehta. “I did not have an apartment of my own in Bombay. He gave the apartment for me to stay,” she said.

She now lives in the “guest house” at the union’s office in south Mumbai and owns plum properties in Breach Candy, Tardeo and Bandra, all together worth several crores and rented out.

Zaidi is nostalgic about Mumbai and recalls how “it was still Bombay” when she arrived. EMS was one of the most powerful trade unions in the city and, along with its affiliates such as the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, had over 2.5 lakh members in the 1980s.

It had a presence in major companies such as Premier Automobiles, Cable Corporation of India and Vidhyut Metallic. Today, it has about 50 companies and trusts as its members, mainly in the industrial belt of Nashik, Belapur, Goa and Mumbai.

Ramanlal Patel, a former office-bearer and a retired Premier Automobiles employee, says Zaidi “started taking interest in the matters of office” when the union was involved in many legal disputes.

“Slowly, she gained the trust of R J Mehta, who allowed her involvement in legal matters. She used this to her advantage and ensured that she benefits from the trust,” Patel alleges, adding that she managed to oust those who did not support her style of functioning.

Zaidi denies all allegations. “There was a resolution that was passed by the union which does not allow any family members to interfere with the union’s activity. These allegations are being made as the family, especially the son, is aware that his father did not trust him enough, and did not want him to be a part of this institution,” she says.