3 domestic helps held for stealing cash, gold worth ₹50 lakh

Three women domestic helps were arrested for stealing gold ornaments and cash worth ?50 lakh ($67,000) from the residence of an NRI in Mumbai. Police seized stolen booty worth ?39.68 lakh from the accused. The NRI, Dr Naseem Jagani, 82, lives in the US and owns a flat in a building on Hill Road. The accused worked for Dr Jagani?s brother, who lives in the same building.

MUMBAI: Three women domestic helps have been arrested for allegedly stealing gold ornaments and cash worth ₹50 lakh from the residence of a non-resident Indian (NRI) in Bandra West. Police claimed they have seized stolen booty worth ₹39.68 lakh from the three accused.

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Police said, the NRI, Dr Naseem Jagani, 82, lives in the US, and owns a flat in a building on the Hill Road. The accused, Nirmala Kamble, 36, Guljar Makbool Shaikh, 40, and Anisha Jani Shaikh, 45, worked as domestic helps for Dr Jagani’s brother, Shafeeq Jagani, 78, who lives in the same building.

According to the police, Dr Jagani came to India in January and stayed here a few months and went back to the US on March 14.

Kamble had been working there for two years. She was a cook while Guljar joined recently, and she used to wash clothes while Shaikh came to clean the house, said police inspector Sagar Nikam, who holds the charge of senior inspector, Bandra police station.

“The complainant (Shafeeq) used to send them to clean the house once or twice a month. It seems that the accused were aware of the cash and gold, so they stole the cupboard’s key, made a duplicate set and stole the cash and ornaments, said Nikam.

The incident came to light on May 6 when Dr Jagani called her younger sister, who also lives in Bandra, asking her that she had kept a gold bangle in the cupboard in the flat as she wanted it sent to her in the USA.

When Jagani’s brother and her younger sister went home and opened the cupboard, they found cash and gold ornaments missing, said a police officer. They then informed Bandra Police and a case was registered on May 6. However, the victim was not aware about the total value of the stolen valuables. So, the FIR was registered as 60 grams of gold ornaments and cash ₹3.45 lakh missing, added the official.

During the investigation, police questioned many people who had visited the building and Dr Jagani’s house.

“We suspected the three domestic helps as they had visited the flat for cleaning and when we questioned each one of them separately, they could not give proper answers and later, confessed to the crime,” said a police officer, who is a part of the investigating team. “During investigation it was learnt they had stolen gold ornaments of more than 60 tolas (700 grams) of gold and ₹3.45 lakh in cash. We have recovered gold ornaments and cash worth ₹39.68 lakh from them,” said the police officer.