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RAPAPORT... Diamond theft in Surat is becoming a cause for concern across the world’s biggest diamond trading hub. The city reportedly had 14 incidents of diamond looting and 35 thefts since 2009. Worse yet, according to a news report in The Times of India, the police have failed to recover even 50 percent of the stolen diamonds.
Sharing his views on the issue with Rapaport News, Dinesh Navadia, the president of the Surat Diamond Association, said, “There used to be a lot of power (electricity) theft in the city and the state government had formed a special police task force to deal with this and this was very successful.
"The reason for its success is that there was concentrated effort on the path of the police to take care of the power theft. The diamond industry, in the last five years has been grappling with thefts. It is not a difficult task for someone to smuggle out a small packet of diamonds," Navadia explained. "The value at the time can be as high as even Rs. 50 lakhs. It would be very helpful if our industry could get a special cell within the police department to take care of cases related to diamond theft.”
Navadia has also stated that industry complaints regarding diamond losses are not often entertained immediately and directly by the respective police stations. Ordinarily, the complaints are collected and details are gathered first and that data is then sent up through the ranks and eventually reaches the police commissioner.
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