A former textile worker in Surat deliberately set fire to the Shyam Sangini Textile Market over an unpaid salary of Rs 10,000. The arson destroyed 14 shops and caused Rs 24 crore in damages before the suspect was identified via CCTV and arrested.
A former textile worker in Surat who was angry about not getting paid has been caught for starting a fire that destroyed several shops, all of which owed more than Rs 10,000. A CCTV camera got Vinod Pandit Savle lighting a match and putting blankets on fire outside of a shop in Shyam Sangini Textile Market on the nite of September 8th and 9th. Fire in Surat's textile hub destroyed 14 shops and cost Rs 24 crore in damage, according to the police.
Police said that 33-year-old Vinod Pandit Savle worked at Shop No. 639 in Surat's Shyam Sangini Textile Market for about three months. He began in April 2026 and last worked until June 2027. Police said Savle told them he quit because he was tired of being harassed by another accountant named Sumit and his boss, who didn't like his work.
Savle targeted Sheth Hanuman Prasad Zawar’s shop on the intervening night of September 8-9. He believed that his former employer owed him Rs 10,000 in unpaid dues, and he wanted to "teach the owner a lesson", police said.
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The accountant said that the shop owner wouldn't give him the Rs 10,000 he was owed, even after being reminded several times over the phone. "Very angry about this, Vinod chose to set fire to the market to teach Sheth, his old boss, a lesson about the value of Rs 10,000." Police said in a press release that he bought 150 naira worth of petrol in a plastic bottle on 8 September as part of his plan.
He then entered the market around 9 pm and hid near a staircase until it was deserted. Around 12:30 am, he reached the sixth floor and poured petrol over bales of cloth kept outside his ex-employer’s shop. He then struck a match to start the fire. Savle’s act of arson destroyed property and fabrics worth Rs 24 crore. The fire he started raged for 14 hours and completely gutted the sixth floor of the textile hub. It also caused damage to the fifth floor.
Savle left Surat with his wife and small child and proceeded to Ayodhya after learning that a formal complaint had been made. He covered his face with a rag, but police were still able to track him down using CCTV video. When he got back to Surat, he was detained.
