Textile printing unit staffer booked for stealing ₹36 lakh worth of goods from Ahmedabad godown

The Danilimda police have registered a case of theft against an employee of a textile printing and dyeing unit after goods worth over ₹36 lakh were allegedly stolen from the company’s godown in the Behrampura area of Ahmedabad.

Kinjalbhai Sureshbhai Shah, who runs a textile printing and dyeing firm named Bharatkumar & Company in Gulabnagar, in his complaint mentioned the theft occurred between February 27 and March 3.

Shah told police that around 10 to 12 workers are employed at the company, including Manojkumar Satyaprakash Patel, who had been working there since 2019 and was entrusted with miscellaneous duties, including unloading goods arriving late at night.

As per the complaint, the company office and godown were closed around 8 pm on February 27. Since another consignment of cloth was expected later that night, Shah handed over the godown keys to Patel before leaving for home. The following day, the complainant left for Mumbai for personal work and returned to Ahmedabad on March 3.

When Shah visited the factory later that morning, a machine operator at the unit, Kamleshbhai, informed him that the stock stored in the godown appeared to be less than usual. He also pointed out that Patel had not reported to work for the past two days and his mobile phone was switched off.

On checking the CCTV footage installed at the premises, Shah allegedly found Patel entering the godown with a few unidentified accomplices and removing textile goods in a Bolero vehicle on two occasions.

Subsequent verification of stock revealed that large quantities of fabric belonging to various companies had gone missing. These included 5,100 metres of cotton fabric belonging to Anjali Textile valued at ₹2.10 lakh, 5,396 metres of cotton cloth from Future Textile Manufacturing Company worth around ₹2.35 lakh, and 20,140 metres of cotton fabric belonging to Hemantkumar & Company valued at approximately ₹11.27 lakh.

Police said additional fabric stock — including nearly 11,965 metres of rayon cloth and 9,860 metres of cotton fabric — was also missing. The total value of the stolen textile material was estimated at around ₹25.9 lakh. The complainant further stated that dyeing and printing work worth ₹10.74 lakh had already been carried out on the cloth, taking the overall loss to approximately ₹36.6 lakh.

Shah told police that the fabrics belonged to clients who had sent the material to his unit for dyeing and printing work.

The Danilimda police have registered an offence against Manojkumar Satyaprakash Patel and unidentified accomplices for allegedly opening the godown using a key and stealing the textile goods.

Officials said efforts are under way to trace the accused employee and other persons involved in the theft.