Surat firm facing financial crisis stages diamond heist for insurance fraud: Police

Police said Devendra Kumar Chaudhary, the company’s managing director, his son, and their driver staged the theft by hiring a person with a gas cutter

Published on: Aug 20, 2025, 11:43:34 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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A company in Gujarat’s Surat, facing a financial crisis, allegedly staged what appeared to be one of the biggest diamond heists in the city to file a claim after buying an insurance policy of about ₹20 crore a week earlier.

Surat police said DK & Sons Diamond Company reported theft of diamonds worth ₹25–30 crore. (X)

Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot said DK & Sons Diamond Company reported theft of diamonds worth ₹25–30 crore to file the claim.

The company claimed a gang of thieves broke into their diamond unit over the weekend, opened the main door, and used a gas cutter to cut a safe on the third floor containing rough and polished diamonds worth ₹25–30 crore. It claimed the thieves smashed CCTV cameras and stole the recorder. The company said the theft was discovered when the owner returned to work on Monday.

Gehlot said there were no diamonds in that locker. He added that Devendra Kumar Chaudhary, the company’s managing director, his son, and their driver staged the theft by hiring a person with a gas cutter to cut a safe to pass it off as a real burglary. “They smashed CCTV cameras and took away the recorder. ₹5 lakh was kept inside the safe for those hired to execute the plot,” Gehlot said.

He said theft charges, conspiracy, and other applicable charges will be slapped on the complainant and his associates.

Police and forensic experts investigated the case, suspecting the role of a gang with possible insider support, especially due to the absence of security guards. The incident raised concerns in Surat, a global hub of diamond processing.

Eight out of 10 diamonds sold globally are processed in Surat. Supply chain issues, declining demand, and US sanctions on polished diamonds made from Russian rough stones (33% of Surat’s supply) have battered the industry and caused job losses over the past few years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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