Bengaluru housemaid sports stolen necklace in WhatsApp picture, arrested: Report

After nearly four months of investigation, Bengaluru police arrested a former housemaid who was found wearing a stolen necklace in her WhatsApp profile picture.

Almost four months after a family in Bengaluru reported their jewellery missing, police have apprehended a former domestic worker after discovering her wearing the stolen necklace in her WhatsApp display picture, The Indian Express reported.

The suspect, Renuka, confessed to the theft and was also linked to another burglary in the same apartment complex.

The incident occurred under the HAL police limits from the Whitefield division, who arrested Renuka, a former domestic employee at the Purva Fountain Square Apartment complex, where the family resides.

On March 30, Brijesh Dhami, 36, who lives in the southeast Bengaluru apartment complex, lodged a complaint alleging that valuable jewellery, which his wife had last worn during Diwali 2023, had vanished. Dhami reported that two rings, a pair of bangles, a pair of earrings, a necklace, a gold chain, and several smaller pieces of jewellery stored in a bag within a cupboard were missing as of March 29, 2023, the report stated. The family discovered the bag was empty when they checked for their valuables, according to the complaint.

The FIR listed four domestic workers employed by the family as suspects, including Renuka, who was among the former staff. Despite initial investigations and interrogations of all four suspects, the police had found no leads, the publication noted.

Whitefield DCP Shivakumar Gunare spoke to reporters on the matter and said, “Several months later, one of the domestic workers took a photograph of herself wearing the stolen necklace and put up the photograph as her WhatsApp display picture. The former employers of the domestic worker noticed the picture and alerted the police,” as quoted by the publication.

However, on July 30, Renuka was brought in for questioning from her home in Munnekolalu, Marathahalli. During the interrogation, she admitted to the theft at the apartment and further revealed her involvement in a separate theft at another flat within the same complex.