The Surat police have registered a case in connection with a theft of 4,279 kilogram of copper scrap from a truck that was confiscated and parked in the compound of Gujarat State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) office at Nanpura in Gujarat.
The stolen articles amounted to Rs 29.10 lakh, police said.
According to the complaint by GST officer Vipul Desai who approached the Athwalines police station, the mobile teams of SGST officers had stopped a truck (MH-04A-GC-1557), laden with copper scrap at Kamrej crossroad in Surat district, on November 18, 2021. When they demanded the documents, the truck driver showed them the bill that had K P Enterprise, Bhavnagar, as the sender and Dhanlaxmi Metal Industries, Surat, as seller. On verifying, the officials found several discrepancies in the papers.
The GST mobile team officers, Mahesh Parghi and Pushpak Pankada, weighed the consignment at Agro Cooperative Society at Kamrej, and noted it as 9,890 kilograms. The truck was confiscated and brought to the SGST office, and the firm was officially informed about the seizure through email.
A few weeks after the seizure, the officers weighed the copper scrap again on December 5, and found that 4279 kilograms of copper scrap was missing and it was replaced with 2,257 kilograms of mild steel scrap. However, a complaint regarding the theft was lodged with Athwalines police station only Friday.
Police inspector A P Chaudhari said, "We have registered a case of theft. There was a delay in filing a theft complaint because the officers had to check the shortage of seized stock and weigh it and also confirm the weight of the steel that was replaced by the miscreants."
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