Surat: Cop returns diamonds worth Rs30 lakh to owner

SURAT: A bag containing rough diamonds worth Rs30 lakh failed to lead a police sub-inspector’s (PSI) unflagging conscience astray when he found it in the pannier of his motorcycle here on Sunday morning. A 59-year-old diamond broker whose motorcycle was parked along side the police officer’s bike had by mistake put the bag in the latter’s pannier, thinking it to be his.
V K Rathod, PSI at Varachha police station, was at Mini Bazaar, a diamond market in Varachha, at around 10.40am. He had parked his motorcycle near Mavani Complex. He found a black bag with small pouches when he returned and opened the motorcycle’s pannier to take out his raincoat.
“I was cautious to touch the bag. I was shocked to find diamonds in it. I looked for its owner nearby but there was no one searching for it,” Rathod, a native of Bhavnagar, who joined police force in 2016, told TOI.
Rathod then informed a watchman of Mavani Complex that if anyone comes looking for a bag, send him to Varachha police station. He also informed a watchman of a nearby building about it and waited for its owner at Lambe Hanuman police chowky for some time.
Meanwhile, Umed Jebaliya, a resident of Varachha, informed Varachha police station that he had lost a bag containing 40,000 carat diamonds worth Rs30 lakh. The bag was handed over to Jebaliya, a diamond broker, after verification.
“My blood pressure had shot up when I realized that the bag containing diamonds was missing from my motorcycle’s pannier. I immediately contacted a policeman known to me and he instructed me to go to police station,” Jebaliya told TOI.
Jebaliya, also a native of Bhavnagar, had brought the diamonds from a businessman in Rajhans Tower in Mini Bazaar to show them to a client. He kept the bag containing diamonds in the pannier of Rathod’s motorcycle without realizing that it was not his. “I opened the pannier lock with my keys and it opened. The PSI’s and my motorcycles were parked alongside and had similar panniers,” Jebaliya added.
He talked to his friend for some time and left for Mahidharpura diamond market on his motorcycle. When he realized that the bag was missing, he thought it was stolen or had fallen on road.