Over 15 weavers from the powerloom industry have been allegedly cheated by buyers who defaulted payment to the tune of Rs 4.96 crore, following which Surat police has begun a probe. According to police, Piyush Bardoliwala, who runs a powerloom factory in Udhna Magdalla road industrial estate, filed a complaint at Khatodara police station on behalf of the weavers against nine people who defaulted payment after purchasing material from them. Those named in the complaint are Dinesh Patel, Kiran Patel, Rohit Patel, Bharat Patel, Praveen Patel, Pinkesh Patel, Bharat Taliya, Sonu alias Hitesh Agrawal, and one unknown person — all residents of different areas in Surat city. In his complaint, Bardoliwala said that from January 2021 till date, the accused Dinesh Patel and his son Rohit Patel, who runs Shyam Fashion and Chitrakut Impex, and other accused, including textile brokers, purchased grey bales from the complainant and other weavers at different time intervals, with the assurance of making the payment after 90 days. However, they failed to pay the dues and gave various excuses. Police registered offence under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public, servant. or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy). Talking to The Indian Express, inspector RK Dhuliya of Khatodara police station said, “We have registered offence after the weavers submitted the documents of payment received and payment due from the accused. There are over 15 weavers who became victims of this gang. We are trying to find if there are more similar victims. The accused have gone underground but we will arrest them soon.”
