A dispute over Rs 10,000 in unpaid wages allegedly drove a former accountant to set fire to a textile market in Surat, sparking a blaze that destroyed goods worth roughly Rs 24 crore, police said.
Police arrested 33-year-old Vinod Savle, originally from Dhule in Maharashtra, on Monday in connection with the September 9 fire at Shyam Sangini Textile Market in Saroli. Savle had worked as an accountant at trader Hanuman Prasad Zawar’s shop since April 2026, earning Rs 30,000 a month. Police said he quit after alleging repeated harassment and scrutiny of his work by Zawar and another accountant, and claimed he was owed Rs 10,000 in unpaid salary when he left.
Additional commissioner of police (crime) Dr Karanraj Vaghela said CCTV footage and human intelligence led investigators to identify Savle as the alleged culprit. According to police, he bought petrol from a fuel station on September 8, carried it away in a plastic bag, and later went to his former employer’s shop, setting fire to goods stored outside, intending to “teach his employer a lesson.”
The fire, however, spread beyond its intended target, gutting goods and materials across 17 adjoining shops (numbered 601 to 617) belonging to four different textile traders. Zawar reported losses of Rs 6 crore, while traders Abhishek Soni, Anurag Jalan and Hariprasad Zawar reported losses of Rs 2 crore, Rs 12 crore and Rs 4 crore respectively.
Police said Savle switched off his phone after seeing news coverage naming him as a suspect. He allegedly fled Surat, first heading to the Khatushyam temple in Rajasthan before moving on to Ayodhya, and subsequently traveled through parts of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra before returning to Surat 12 days later.
Investigators said he had left with roughly Rs 13,000 in cash, and returned once the money ran out, apparently believing police had stopped searching for him.
Police noted that the fire’s fallout extended well beyond the traders directly involved in the dispute — with the market complex shut down over fire-safety violations, several other businesses were locked out of their shops and suffered further losses as a result.
