Refinery manager shot dead in Rajkot robbery; 10 arrested, gold and silver recovered
Police in Gujarat arrested 10 people and recovered gold and silver worth about Rs 1.53 crore within hours of the robbery in which the manager was shot.
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A refinery manager was shot and robbed of gold and silver in Rajkot city in Gujarat. Police have arrested 10 people in the case. Police said on Friday that the stolen gold and silver, worth about Rs 1.53 crore, were recovered within a few hours.
The incident took place around 8 pm on October 14. The refinery of Tanvi Export India Limited is on Aji GIDC Main Road, in the Thorala police station area of Rajkot. The incident happened there.
The company's manager, Lalajibhai Sardhara, was carrying a bag. It held bars of pure gold weighing about 946 grams and nearly two kg of pure silver powder. The gold was valued at about Rs 1.489 crore and the silver powder at Rs 4.3 lakh. Together, the precious metals were said to be worth Rs 1.532 crore.
After leaving the refinery, Sardhara was about to get on a two-wheeler to go to a showroom near the company. Just then, four men arrived in a car. Two of them got out of the car and tried to snatch the bag from Sardhara's hand.
Sardhara and security guard Bavanji Padhiyar resisted. One of the attackers then fired three shots at Sardhara. He was seriously injured, and the attackers fled with the bag. Sardhara later died during treatment.
After the incident, teams of the Rajkot city crime branch, the Special Operations Group (SOG), the Local Crime Branch (LCB), Zone-1 and Thorala police station began an investigation. With the help of CCTV footage and technical surveillance, the car used in the crime was traced.
The car was found to have come from outside Gujarat. Gujarat Police then contacted Rajasthan Police and alerted various districts. Acting on the information received, Rajasthan Police stopped the car at Janpur Circle in Sirohi district and arrested four people.
During questioning, the investigating team learnt that two more accused had left with the stolen goods in another car. Police then stopped that car in the Badgaon area of Udaipur district. In further investigation, some accused were also arrested from Samakhiyali in Kutch district. One person suspected of supplying information about the transport of the looted precious metals was arrested from Rajkot. This brought the total number of arrests to 10.
Police have seized from the accused the gold bars, silver powder, two cars used in the crime and eight mobile phones. Police said the total value of the seized goods is Rs 1 crore 57 lakh 65 thousand 500.
Those arrested are Ashwini Kumar alias Lankesh, Anurag Singh, Vishal Singh, Shivam Gupta, Vedant Kant alias Aman, Pawan Kumar, Arvind alias Neeraj, Shailesh Kumar Kharwar, Ajit Kumar Pandey and Shivam Pandey. Most of the accused are residents of Uttar Pradesh, while Shailesh Kumar lived in Rajkot.
According to police, cases have been registered against some of the accused earlier as well. A case has been registered against Shailesh Kumar at Palwal police station in Haryana under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Ajit Kumar was arrested in 2025 in an attempt-to-murder case in Chandauli district. Ashwini Kumar was arrested in 2025 for attempt to murder and in 2018 in two cases of assault.
Anurag Singh was also arrested in a culpable homicide case registered at Bahriabad police station in Uttar Pradesh. Further investigation and legal proceedings in that case are under way.
