Surat: Buyers eagerly awaiting parcels of ready-made garments and dress materials were left twiddling their thumbs when nearly 2,800 consignments vanished in transit. What appeared at first to be a logistics lapse turned out to be a calculated theft — committed by the delivery man himself.Jayesh Chauhan, a courier staffer with a leading logistics company, was arrested after he allegedly stole 2,784 parcels valued at Rs 31.80 lakh. Instead of using the company's vehicle to transport the parcels to the central warehouse, Chauhan hired a private loading vehicle and diverted the goods to an undisclosed location.According to Ashish Chaudhary, the company's legal security manager, Chauhan was based at the Khatodara pickup centre in Surat, one of three operated by the firm.

On April 7, Chauhan began his day as usual—visiting markets like Shyam Sangini with an electronic device to log parcel pickups. He collected the consignments and returned to the Khatodara office, where he was expected to dispatch them to the company's central warehouse in Kacholi village near the Bhatiya check post.When warehouse records showed the parcels hadn't arrived, company officials attempted to contact Chauhan, but received no response.

Suspicion grew, and on checking CCTV footage the next day, they saw Chauhan loading the parcels into a privately hired vehicle and driving off.After repeated failed attempts to reach him, the company filed a police complaint. An investigation by Saroli police led to Chauhan's arrest."We have arrested Chauhan and recovered most of the parcels," said Saroli police inspector SR Vekariya. "We're working toward 100% recovery and are probing whether any others were involved in the heist."The courier company confirmed that the stolen parcels contained high-value items including readymade garments, saris, and dress materials — mainly from e-commerce platforms.