House help arrested for stealing jewellery worth ₹1.11Cr from employer’s house

A 44-year-old house help has been for stealing jewellery worth ₹1.11 crore from his employer’s house and replacing it with similar-looking fake jewellery. The accused, Keshava Jena, had been working with the family for the past eight years and had gained their trust

MUMBAI: A 44-year-old house help has been for stealing jewellery worth ₹1.11 crore from his employer’s house and replacing it with similar-looking fake jewellery. The accused, Keshava Jena, had been working with the family for the past eight years and had gained their trust. The complainant, a Peddar Road resident, only discovered the theft when they recently took the jewellery out and suspected it was not genuine. They then took it to a jeweller, who, after testing it, confirmed it was fake.

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According to the Gamdevi police, the arrested house-help is a resident of Odisha and the case has been registered against him based on a complaint lodged by his employer, Nandish Vasa, 44, a resident of Peddar Road

“Jena used to work with the family for the past eight years. He had gained the trust of the family. Since November he had started stealing the jewellery kept in the cupboards and replaced it with similar but fake jewellery,” said the police officer. Somewhere in February, he left the job citing personal reasons and stating that he wanted to settle in his native place, the officer added.

“The family regularly checked the jewellery at home. Recently, they took it out and doubted its authenticity. A jeweller then confirmed that all the pieces were fake,” said the police officer.

They immediately approached the police and based on their complaint the police had initially registered a case under section 381 (theft by a clerk or servant of property in possession of master) of the Indian Penal Code and later added section 420 after it became clear that he had replaced the stolen jewellery with fake ones.

The police said they had started tracing the accused and learned that the accused had come to the city along with his friend when he was picked from a lodge in Dadar. The police said they are in the process of recovering the jewellery from the accused and got his police custody for the same.