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.