In meeting with textile market stakeholders, Surat police discuss ways to keep ‘fly-by-night cheater firms’ at bay
Published on: Oct. 3, 2025, 12:58 a.m. | Source: The Indian Express
Such firms rent outlets in various textile markets, purchase sarees and dress materials on a 60-day credit before shutting shop and vanishing without a trace, said police EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE (Kamal Saiyed) SURAT, OCTOBER 2 To save Surat textile traders from being cheated by “fly-by-night” firms, the police department in the city held a meeting with stakeholders from various markets in the Saroli area on Thursday. Explaining how the cheating takes place, a police officer said, “These firms rent shops in various textile markets and begin purchasing sarees and dress materials on credit for a period of 60 days. To gain trust of the people in the industry, they initially make timely payments. However, after a few more business dealings, they begin defaulting on payment by shutting down their shops and vanishing without a trace, leaving their debts unpaid.” To prevent a recurrence of such incidents, Saroli police station personnel contacted the maintenance or administration department officials of 17 different textile markets within their jurisdiction on Thursday. During the meeting, which also saw representatives from various textile markets in attendance, the police instructed them to distribute a circular among shop owners, requesting that they submit a rental agreement between the tenant and shop owner besides the GST document and the current and permanent address of the tenant shopkeeper. These shops should get registered with the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association, officers said. The police told the maintenance department of individual textile markets that they should verify the GST number of the shopkeeper who has taken a space on rent. Notably, there are over 200 textile markets comprising 70,000 textile trading shops in Surat. A majority of these shops are located on the ring road, specifically in the Salabatpura area. With barely any space left there, many new textile markets have begun springing up on the east side of the city in the Saroli area. Talking to The Indian Express, Saroli police station inspector S R Vekariya said, “New textile markets are emerging in our area, and for this reason, we have conducted meetings with their respective maintenance departments, advising them to follow specific guidelines so as to not fall victim to cheating. We came up with these rules keeping in mind the modus operandi of the cheaters. If the strategy is followed properly, it will go a long way in ensuring that such cases don't recur.” Disclaimer IE ONLINE MEDIA SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED This e-mail message may contain proprietary, confidential or legally privileged information for the sole use of the person or entity to whom this message was originally addressed. Please delete this e-mail, if it is not meant for you and notify us at feedback@indianexpress.com
