Surat diamond unit shuts, owner untraceable as workers flag ‘pending salaries’

A DIAMOND manufacturer in Surat’s Varachha – Marutinandan Diamonds – shut down its unit and the owner has allegedly fled without paying workers’ salaries, amounting to nearly Rs 14.50 lakh, even as Diwali is round the corner, police said on Friday.

On Thursday, the Diamond Workers Union Gujarat (DWUG) submitted an application at the Ashwani Kumar police station in Surat city, requesting the police to register a cheating offence against the firm owner, Kiritbhai Vagadiya.

Sources said on Friday that Vagadiya has been running the diamond cutting and polishing unit for the past two years. It is involved in cutting and polishing natural and lab-grown diamonds. Over 50 employees work at the unit across different departments, the sources added.

Earlier this month, the owner shut down the unit, allegedly without paying two months’ pending salaries to the employees, switched off his mobile phone and has been “untraceable” since. When some of the workers went to his residence, they found that it was locked from the outside.

Over 20 workers then reached out to the DWUG and flagged the pending salary issue. DWUG vice president (Surat), Bhavesh Tank, contacted Vagadiya, and asked him to clear the dues.

Tank told The Indian Express on Friday, “In the second week of this month, we managed to contact the unit owner (Kiritbhai Vagadiya) who cleared part payment of Rs 4.50 lakh of the pending salaries of Rs 14.50 lakh and assured that he would pay the remaining amount on October 19. As he failed to turn up at our office, we tried to contact him on October 20 and found that his mobile phone was switched off. We also tried to reach his friend, who owns another diamond unit, and he told us that Vagadiya is unreachable. Seeing no way out, we informed the police.”

He added, “Of the 55 diamond polishers working in the firm, only 20 contacted us. We learned that two months’ salaries of the remaining 30 workers are also pending, but they have not contacted us yet.”

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Police inspector H B Patel said, “We are trying to contact Vagadiya. We will call some of the diamond polishers and record their statements. Later, we will file an offence report.”

Monaben Mali (30), a resident of Limbayat, has been working at Marutinandan Diamonds since last year. She is yet to receive two months’ (August, September) salary of Rs 60,000, she said.

Mali said, “I am unmarried, staying at my parents’ house. My father, Dilip Mali (65), is a cancer patient and bedridden, while my mother, Mangla Mali (60), is a heart patient. My brother Amit works at a private company. My brother and I run the home. With no salary for the past two months, it has been difficult for us to survive and bear the medical expenses of our parents. Now, Diwali is near and it is difficult to find a job. We just want our salary to be paid soon, so that we can survive for a few months…Until I get a new job.”