An accountant exacted a Rs 24-crore "revenge" on an entire textile market over a Rs 10,000 pending salary that his employer owed him, using all of Rs 150 on petrol and two strikes of matches, police in Gujarat's Surat said on Tuesday. A fire initially thought of as an accident ended up being a major crime upon investigation, leading to the Crime Branch arresting a man named Vinod Pandit Savle.
The case was cracked as security camera footage showed a man, with his face covered, allegedly starting the fire from parcels of cloth outside a shop in Shyam Sangini Textile Market on the night of September 8-9. It spread to at least 14 shops and reduced Rs 24 crore worth of fabric to ashes, police said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Karanraj Vaghela said Savle had worked for about three months at Shop No 639 starting April 2026. He had to quit in June because he was unable to handle the accounts work properly, the officer added.
Savle believed his former employer owed him Rs 10,000, and wanted to "teach the owner a lesson", police said. Savle allegedly bought petrol worth around Rs 150 in a plastic bag and a bottle from a petrol pump in a nearby village. He entered the market around 9 pm on September 8 and hid near the fifth-floor staircase, police said. Around 12:30 am, once the market was deserted, he went to the targeted shop.
CCTV footage recovered by the Crime Branch showed the accused, his face covered with a white cloth and a bag slung over his shoulder, reaching the sixth floor of the market. He surveyed the area, took a petrol-filled bottle out of the bag and poured it on cloth boxes and parcels kept outside the shop. His first attempt to set them alight with a matchstick failed; the cloth caught fire on the second attempt. The footage showed him fleeing as the flames rose. He turned back to check if his plan had worked.
The large quantity of cloth and packing material allowed the fire to spread rapidly, engulfing several shops. Fire brigade personnel took hours to bring it under control, police said.
The Saroli area police registered a case against an unidentified person following the fire. The Crime Branch scanned footage from several cameras installed under the Surat Police's 'Vishwas Project Phase-2', stitching together the accused's route from his entry into the market to his exit, police said. The footage led investigators to Savle, a resident of Bilipatra Residency in Dindoli, police said.
According to police, after the incident spread on social media and Savle learnt that an FIR had been registered, he switched off his mobile phone and left Surat with his wife and child. He first went to the Khatu Shyam temple in Rajasthan, and then to Ayodhya, police said.
Police said Savle was arrested by a Crime Branch team near Flower Garden in Dindoli after he returned to Surat.
Vaghela said police were also examining how Savle bought loose petrol and whether the petrol pump had followed rules. Officials indicated action would be taken against the pump if negligence was found.
The Crime Branch is questioning Savle and investigating whether he planned the arson alone or whether anyone else was involved, police said.
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