Surat police launch mobile app to tackle fraudulent textile traders

The app was developed after the textile industry in Surat was rocked by a spate of fraudulent transactions. In one such incident two individuals Dharmesh Patel and Manoj Mawani were duped out of Rs 21.53 crores worth of textile fabric by a gang of eight.

Patel and Mawani registered a complaint on May 14, following which Jitendra Mangukia, and later arrested Azim Penwala and Dixit Miyani were arrested on May 16. Police are on the lookout for the remaining five accused.

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Similarly, On May 25, a total of nine complaints were registered against a gang of fraudsters for duping traders to
the tune of 71.39 lakhs.

Following these incidents Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Tomar held a meeting with textile traders and asked a private software developer to create the Textile Suraksha Setu application software, to put a tab on such fraudsters.

Surat Mercantile Association, a body of textile traders, president Narendra Saboo said, “There are over 65,000 textile trading shops in 170 textile trading markets in Surat which have an annual turnover of Rs. 80,000 crores. Majority of the textile traders are genuine traders while few of them indulge in such unethical activities resulting in the financial loss of over hundreds of crores to the traders.”

Personnel from Salabatpura police station in Surat have started contacting the presidents of different textile markets to collect details of all textile traders, who have submitted copies of their rent agreement to them.

Salabatpura police inspector A A Chaudhari said, “Generally the individual market presidents have data of the shop owners, so we have started collecting the details and are putting it in the software prepared by a private firm. It is difficult for us to reach each and every shop in the market as shops vary. Some markets have 250 shops, some have over 2,000 shops, but they have to share agreement copy with the market president.”

“There are over 170 textile markets, so it will take time to upload details. Alongwith inserting data in the software, we are also updating if the trader leaves shops or changes his address. Our teams are in regular touch with the present and members of different markets,” Chaudhari added.

Chaudhari also said that once the work of data entry is done the app will be made available for users to download from the app store and Google Playstore.

Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association president Manoj Agrawal said, “We are ready to support the police in supplying details of textile traders . We also have details of those who had in the past cheated the textile traders, and we will provide it to the Surat police.