Mumbai: Police recover domestic help’s pouch containing gold worth Rs 5 lakh from a gutter

The complainant told police that she had finished her day’s work at her employer’s house in Gokuldham complex in Goregaon (east) at noon and was going to a bank to mortgage gold ornaments, as her husband had borrowed money and they had to clear their debts. She had kept the gold in a pouch. While leaving for the bank, her employer gave her some bread to eat, which she put in a plastic bag. Inside this she also put her gold-carrying pouch, which she had meant to put in her purse, police said. En route to the bank, she met a poor woman and her son. Deciding to give them bread, she gave them the plastic bag, police said.

On reaching the bank, the complainant could not find the gold-carrying pouch inside her purse and realised she had put it in the plastic bag she had given away, police said. She then rushed to the spot where she had met the woman and boy but could not find them. The complainant then rushed to the Dindoshi police station.

“She did not inform her husband. She told us she wanted to harm herself. She was very depressed. We gave her confidence and assured her we will do our best. We told her relatives and husband not to scold her because she was tensed and depressed,” said Suraj Pawar, Assistant Police Inspector at Dindoshi police station.

A team of two detection officers, Pawar and API Chandrakant Gharge and five constables started searching for the other woman.

The team reached the spot and found a CCTV camera where they could see the other woman leaving the place in a rickshaw with her son. Giving her description to local residents and workers, the police identified her as a resident of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon (east). They went there but she had changed her address to the nearby Prem Nagar slum.

They tracked her down the same evening and she told them she had thrown the plastic bag near a garbage bin because her son did not want the bread. “We considered that she was being untruthful but we had to be sure. So, we returned to the spot where she said she threw the bag and searched for CCTV cameras,” said Gharge.

There was a low-quality CCTV camera near a garbage bin on a lane next to SV Road. The CCTV footage showed the woman throwing the plastic bag near the bin. It further showed the plastic bag moving and the police realised it had to be a puppy or rat that was pulling the bag away. They reached the spot and found a gutter there with a water outlet.

Thinking that a rat may have pulled the bag into the outlet, the police opened the gutter and found the pouch with the gold inside. “Three gold chains, six finger rings and a couple of earrings were found as described by the domestic help. We returned it to her on Wednesday,” said Jeevan Kharat, Senior Inspector of Dindoshi police station.