Trusted domestic help who fled with ₹41 lakh arrested from Jharkhand

Mumbai The Kandivali police arrested a domestic help, on Tuesday, for stealing gold and cash worth ₹41 lakhs a day before Lakshmi Puja on October 24 from his employer’s house

Mumbai The Kandivali police arrested a domestic help, on Tuesday, for stealing gold and cash worth ₹41 lakhs a day before Lakshmi Puja on October 24 from his employer’s house.

Trusted domestic help who fled with ₹41 lakh arrested from Jharkhand

The accused was arrested from his village in Jharkhand. Shrikant Yadav (32) had been working for his employer, a 51-year-old architect, for the past 12 years and was entrusted with the keys of the house.

According to Vishal Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 11), the accused wanted to start his own business for which he needed seed money.

Thakur said that Yadav was all alone at his employer’s house in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali (West), when he decided to carry out the theft.

Ahead of Diwali, Yadav’s employer had asked him to make a duplicate key of the cupboard.

“Yadav then made two keys. Kept one for himself and gave the other to his employer. He waited for an opportunity for his employer to get jewellery and cash from the bank locker for Diwali like every year,” said a police officer from Kandivali police station.

The complainant told the police that when he realised that Yadav was missing, he asked around and learnt that he had left for his village urgently on the eve of Diwali.

On the day of Lakshmi Puja, when the employer’s wife opened the cupboard to remove the jewellery to be kept for Puja, she realised that the jewellery and cash worth ₹41 lakhs was missing.

The couple then approached the police and registered a case naming Yadav as the main suspect.

“We traced Yadav through his mobile phone to Jharkhand. Since he had been working for the complainant for over a decade, they knew his village and background,” said Thakur.

The police have arrested Yadav and recovered the stolen jewellery and cash.