Stolen diamonds add sparkle to business

Mahesh Khodiyarwala, a kantawallah, admits: ‘‘I weigh and sort diamonds, then sell it to buyers. We get many buyers as they can get polished diamonds at a cheaper price here. I earn anything between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 as brokerage each night.’’

‘‘Everyone in the diamond trade knows about the market. But nobody stops them,’’ says Praveen Nanavati, former president of the Surat Diamond Association (SDA).

How do the workers manage to steal? Says diamond manufacturer Kirti Shah, ‘‘At a manufacturing unit, a worker is given 15-20 rough diamonds for polishing. At the end of the day, the worker deposits the polished diamonds with the unit owner. The owner counts the number of diamonds without checking quality and workers exchange low-quality diamonds for high-quality ones.’’

Getting away is easy. ‘‘Some hide inferior diamonds in their hair or under their nails. Some hide it in chewing tobacco,’’ says Shah.

‘‘Sometimes, they (workers) have men waiting outside during lunch-break..After the diamonds are exchanged, the worker brings the stolen diamonds to the market where brokers charge up to 7-8 per cent for a good deal. One diamond can cost anything from Rs 500 to Rs 4 lakh and above,’’ says SDA president Nanu Vanani. Can’t the SDA nail the culprits? ‘‘We can’t stop the kantawallahs. We have no evidence that they deal in stolen diamonds,’’ he says.

With an annual turnover of Rs 30,000 crore, Surat has one of the biggest diamond industries, with more than 10,000 big and small diamond units. According to industry sources, only 2,000 of these units are equipped with hi-tech security gadgets to keep a tab on workers as well as outsiders.

DCP B.K. Shrimali says, ‘‘Owners of manufacturing units have to be more vigilant…Guilty workers must be blacklisted. Today, if any worker is caught stealing, he is kicked out of the unit. But he finds work at another unit and the story continues.’’