Surat: In a major action concerning the public safety, a factory in Pandesara GIDC operating under the guise of filament yarn production was found secretly manufacturing banned Chinese kite string. The Special Operations Group (SOG) conducted a raid at the facility, seizing goods worth ₹2.18 crore and questioning the company’s production manager.

Police said the SOG received a tip-off that the factory at Pandesara GIDC was illegally producing Chinese twine, commonly used during Makar Sankranti. Acting on the information, officers raided the ground-floor warehouse of Angel Monofilament at Plot No. 272-A. During the operation, raw materials and finished Chinese twine were recovered, totaling a seizure valued at ₹2.18 crore.

Over 60 workers were found working round the clock, with more than 10 large machines operating continuously.

The company’s production manager, Pramod Bhagwan Mandal (44, resident of Akash Prithvi Apartments, Ganeshnagar, Bhestan; originally from Shivhar, Bihar), was detained. Investigations revealed that after Uttarayan, Chinese twine was being secretly manufactured under the cover of yarn production and dispatched to other cities in parcels.

The seized twine has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination, and legal action against the factory management will follow based on the FSL report.

Notably, the same factory was raided in April this year, when 1,710 boxes worth ₹59.85 lakh were recovered. Investigations showed that both the previously seized and the recently recovered goods originated from the same location. The FSL confirmed that the yarn was synthetic. Following these findings, a case was registered against the factory owner, Sanjay Thakarshi Dungarani, and production manager Pramod Bhagwan Mandal. DeshGujarat