Elderly man complains of ₹3.23-lakh theft, police recover ₹7.5 lakh from maid

A 70-year-old Colaba resident has got back more than double the valuables than what he had claimed missing from his house when he was on a European trip with his family

A 70-year-old Colaba resident has got back more than double the valuables than what he had claimed missing from his house when he was on a European trip with his family. Police have arrested his maid who allegedly committed the crime to meet the expenses of marrying her boyfriend.

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Darayas Chhibbar, who works with a charitable trust as a secretary, had hired one Sanjana Gotmukhale, 20, to look after his ailing wife. She had been employed for the last six years and also did cleaning work at home.

In his complaint, Chhibbar said that in June he received ₹1.5 lakh and before he could deposit it in bank, part of the money went missing. Suspecting theft, when he checked the safe, he found that some valuables too were missing. When he confronted Gotmukhale and the cook, both denied having any knowledge about it.

Chhibbar then went on a Europe trip with his family and returned on August 12. In September, money again went missing from his safe. The senior citizen then approached the police claiming that cash and valuables worth ₹3.23 lakh were stolen from his house.

“We registered an FIR on September 15 and arrested the accused within 24 hours. We have recovered cash and valuables worth ₹7.5 lakh from the maid,” Vijay Hatiskar, senior inspector of Colaba police station, said.

Since the complainant was an elderly person, he was not sure what all valuables had been stolen, Hatiskar added.

Assistant police inspector Gyaneshwar Kandekar said the woman hails from Latur district in Marathwada and is the youngest among her five siblings. “Her father is a construction worker. She wanted to marry her boyfriend and she stole the money to spend on her wedding.”

The police said she had also bought an iPhone in the stolen money. “After three days of police custody, she was sent to judicial custody by a city court on Monday,” Hatiskar added.